Three alleged Hells Angels associates arrested nearly three years ago in a major RCMP crackdown on the notorious motorcycle club yesterday pleaded guilty to drug trafficking offences.
David Pearse and Kerry Ryan Renaud pleaded guilty to conspiracy to produce and traffic methamphetamines between April 1, 2004 and June 3, 2005 in Vancouver, Surrey and New Westminster.
Chad James Barroby pleaded guilty to unlawfully trafficking cocaine in Surrey on Oct. 25, 2004.
The judge imposed a temporary ban on publication of the agreed admissions of fact filed with the court. Sentencing has been put over to August. RCMP Insp. Gary Shinkaruk said outside the court that the judge and federal prosecutor Martha Devlin should be commended for their efforts.
"Both deserve considerable accolades for enabling a platform on which the guilty pleas could be obtained."
The Crown decided not to proceed with charges that the offences were connected in any way to a criminal organization -- that is, the Hells Angels.
The three men were among more than a dozen men arrested in July 2005 during an RCMP operation aimed at the club's East End chapter.
Two others charged originally on the same indictment -- John Virgil Punko and Randall Richard Potts -- have not yet gone to trial.
In April, two other Hells Angels associates arrested during the operation -- David Roger Revell and Richard Rempel -- were sentenced to five and four years in prison respectively for trafficking in cocaine.
A third accused, full-patch member David Francis Giles, was acquitted.