B.C.'s gang enforcement squad arrested five men after busting a Hells Angels drug operation operating between the Lower Mainland and the Okanagan.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/CFSEU-BC
January 05, 2024 - 9:03 AM
A BC Hells Angel was sentenced to four years in prison after an RCMP investigation uncovered a scheme to transport drugs along the Pacific coast between California and BC.
The investigation started in Kelowna in 2015, coming to a close for Vincenzo James Sansalone early last month, according to a BC RCMP news release.
Sansalone, born in 1960, was nabbed after a 2018 search warrant and faced two charges of trafficking a controlled substance. Police said he was one of six suspects, but just four of them were charged.
The investigation, intially spurred in Kelowna, was led by the BC Federal Serious and Organized Crime unit. It reached across multiple Canadian jurisdictions and American, including San Diego, Seattle and Metro Vancouver.
Investigators used undercover operations and wire taps over the course of the investigation, while also collaborating with law enforcement south of the border, according to BC RCMP.
During the investigation, RCMP seized 12 kilograms of MDMA and $380,000 of cash, which police say the suspects planned to use as a down payment for 18 kilograms of cocaine.
Sansalone was sentenced to four years in prison with a lifetime firearms ban on Dec. 6, according to court records. Co-accused Daniel James Alexander, born in 1986, faced a more serious charge of conspiracy and was sentenced to five years imprisonment in March 2023.
While Sansalone's trafficking was centred in Vancouver, according to court records, it was Alexander's conspiracy charge that implicated him in the cross-border trafficking scheme.
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