B.C. Hells Angels biker convicted on drug-trafficking conspiracy charges involving Manitoba informant

A B.C. Hells Angels biker arrested in an RCMP undercover investigation targeting international drug-trafficking networks has been convicted of arranging high-volume cocaine deals with a Manitoba man who became a paid police informant.

Damion Ryan was found guilty Monday after a lengthy trial earlier this fall on three counts of conspiracy to traffic in drugs, and one count each of conspiracy to possess proceeds of crime and conspiracy in benefit of a criminal organization.

Ryan was accused of drug crimes committed for the benefit or under the direction of the Wolf Pack Alliance, an organized-crime group composed of high-level Canadian gangsters and drug traffickers.

“I find that Mr. Ryan was a key member (of the Wolf Pack), (and) his role was directing a high-level drug organization that could source significant quantitites of cocaine, meth and fentanyl, from Vancouver to Winnipeg, along with handguns and protection to support the drug operation,” said King’s Bench Justice Chris Martin, who spent nearly 90 minutes delivering his written decision.

Ryan defended himself for much of his trial, with assistance from defence lawyer Amanda Sansregret, who cross-examined several Crown witnesses.

Ryan did not testify and did not call any evidence, mounting what Martin described as a “prove it” defence.

A full-patch Hells Angels member, Ryan was arrested in Ottawa in February 2022, when Manitoba federal RCMP took down five Canadian and international drug networks in a wide-reaching probe dubbed Project Divergent, which began in 2018.

Project Divergent resulted in the arrest of more than 20 people and Manitoba RCMP’s largest-ever drug seizure at the time: 110 kilograms of cocaine, more than 40 kilograms of methamphetamine, three kilograms of fentanyl and 500 grams of MDMA. Police also seized 19 guns and more than $445,000 in cash.

Martin said while it was not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that two key players close to Ryan were members of the Wolf Pack, that was not necessary to establish that they all belonged to a criminal organization.

“At the end of the day… the totality of the evidence, both direct and circumstantial leads to only one reasonable inference: this conspiracy group was a criminal organization,” Martin said.

Ryan “was in the thick of it — he knew and connected all of the key players, was the problem-solver and the organizer,” he said.

The Crown’s star witness in the case can be identified only as Agent 66. He became a paid police informant after he lost nearly $400,000 in a money-laundering scheme, he told court.

The witness said he became an informant for an unidentified police agency while in a Manitoba jail in 2018 and 2019. The agency introduced the agent to the RCMP and he became a key part of Project Divergent.

The agent spent more than a year working his way up the criminal chain before securing a meeting with Ryan at a Montreal restaurant in December 2021. During the meeting — which was secretly recorded by police — the two men discussed the agent purchasing multiple kilograms of cocaine from Ryan. The men also talked about cigarette trafficking and Ryan offered to sell the agent handguns.

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In the months preceding his meeting with Ryan, Agent 66 negotiated two major drug deals with another reputed member of the criminal network, Denis Ivziku, a man he later learned was Ryan’s brother-in-law. It was Ivziku, court heard, who told Agent 66 that “Mr. Wolf” was Damion Ryan and helped arrange their meeting in Montreal.

In the weeks following the Montreal meeting, Agent 66, Ryan, and Ivziku arranged a deal over encrypted messaging that culminated in the delivery of five kilos of cocaine to Agent 66 in Winnipeg on Jan. 7, 2022. A deal for another 10 kilograms of cocaine was still outstanding at the time Ryan was arrested, court heard.

Ryan will be back in court Thursday to set a sentencing date.

Prosecutors did not tell court Monday what sentence they will be recommending.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca

Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter

Dean Pritchard is courts reporter for the Free Press. He has covered the justice system since 1999, working for the Brandon Sun and Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 2019. Read more about Dean.

Every piece of reporting Dean produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.