Agent 66 pushed to meet with supplier, court hears

The death of a B.C. drug dealer set a police informant and investigators on a winding course that would lead them to identifying Hells Angel Damion Ryan as an alleged key leader in a massive international drug trafficking network, a court heard Wednesday.

Prosecutors laid out the journey in a series of police wiretap recordings made between August and September of 2021.

Ryan is on trial accused of conspiring to sell cocaine, meth and fentanyl and possessing the proceeds of crime for the benefit or under the direction of the Wolf Pack Alliance, an organized-crime group comprised of various high-level Canadian gangsters and drug traffickers.

Ryan was one of 22 people arrested in early 2022 following a years-long RCMP investigation dubbed Project Divergent that netted the largest drug seizure in Manitoba at the time: 110 kilograms of cocaine, more than 40 kilograms of methamphetamine, three kilograms of fentanyl, 500 grams of MDMA, as well as 19 guns and more than $445,000 in cash.

The Crown’s star witness against Ryan is a longtime drug dealer now in witness protection after he agreed to infiltrate the trafficking network in return for a payday of up to $900,000, plus expenses.

The man’s name is protected by a publication ban. He is identified in court documents as Agent 66.

Court has heard Agent 66 contacted Project Divergent co-accused Andre Steele, whom he had previously met in jail, in November 2020 to discuss the purchase of 30 ounces of methamphetamine and pressed Steele to connect him to his supplier.

After some initial resistance, the man alleged to be Steele agreed to connect the informant with his supplier — a man further up the criminal chain, but not Ryan — in exchange for $10,000.

The agent met the man outside a Vancouver restaurant on Dec. 16, 2020, where the agent brokered a deal to purchase three kilograms of methamphetamine.

The agent testified Wednesday he was looking at Facebook months later, on Aug. 19, 2021, when he learned that the drug dealer died and immediately contacted Steele, at the time in custody on charges unrelated to Project Divergent.

“Not only do I lose a (supplier), I lose a f—-ing friend,” a distraught sounding Steele is heard saying on the call.

Agent 66 told Steele he planned to travel to Vancouver for the man’s funeral “to pay his respects” and offered to pick up an encrypted cellphone for Steele from his friend “Dime,” a man alleged to be Ryan.

“If you see him at the funeral, you aren’t going to miss him, he’s six-f—-ing-three, 200-300 pounds,” Steele said.

“I don’t want you to communicate (with him) for the purpose of getting something,” Steele warned the agent, stressing it was Steele’s job to insulate Dime from detection by police.

Over the course of more calls, the agent and Steele made arrangements for the agent to meet with a new B.C. supplier and purchase seven kilograms of methamphetamine.

The agent pressed Steele to arrange an introduction with Dime.

“You can’t force this thing, it just has to come natural,” Steele said.

The agent told court he travelled to Vancouver with an undercover police officer, and “were working to meet somebody” when they learned Ryan wasn’t going to be present and pulled out of the meeting.

The agent later called Steele, claiming he had aborted the drug deal after being falsely accused of owing the drug network money.

“I almost got killed over someone’s debt — that’s not cool,” the agent said.

Steele told the agent he was “making a mountain out of a molehill.”

“C’mon, grab your nuts, no one is trying to rob you,” Steele said. “That’s not how we do business.”

In an Aug. 27 text message, Steele told the agent if he wanted another introduction to a supplier it was going to cost him $5,000.

More calls and messages followed, with arrangements made for the agent to meet another supplier in Burnaby, B.C.

The agent repeated his plea to meet Dime.

“I need to meet with Dime for his blessing, so I don’t f—-ing get taxed (for drug dealing in another gang’s territory),” the agent said in a Sept. 8 call.

“Let nature take its course,” Steele said. “I am the insulation between him and getting in trouble. Until my buddy steps in and requests (to meet), don’t ask… it could cost you.”

The agent and a police officer posing as another drug dealer met with the new supplier at a Burnaby food court Sept. 21, with the agent making a deal to buy 10 kilograms of methamphetamine for $80,000.

The deal came with one condition. “I just want a message from Big Buddy saying we are good to go, that he is vouching for you and we are solid,” the agent told the supplier and a confederate in a secretly recorded conversation played for court.

The agent told court he received an encrypted message on his phone later that day from a “Mr. Wolf” vouching for the supplier and saying his drug order was “ready and good to go.”

The agent met with the supplier the next day, provided him a $25,000 down payment for the drugs and thanked him for the message from Mr. Wolf.

“That’s Damion, right?” the agent asked the supplier.

“Yeah, that’s Damion, yeah,” the man replied.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca