I am not saying that
Dave Basi, Bobby Virk, or
Aneal Basi are crooks. Never have said that. Never will say that until the day these men appear before a Judge in a court of law and are convicted. No pre-trial convictions allowed on this web-site. No pre-trial verdicts of Not Guilty either. OK?
All I'm saying now is: What if?
What if Basi, Virk, or Basi really are crooks?
What if Dave Basi has been in league with organized crime?
What if Dave Basi has his own team of "Basi Boys"? It could be true.
What if it's true? There is that possibility.
The RCMP and the Crown lawyers must have felt convinced of wrongdoing when they laid those charges against Basi, Virk, Basi. Did they seriously expect these 3 men to turn into angels? Or what? What did they expect?
What are the Crown, the lawyers, the police, the government playing at? The Canadian people have been watching and waiting almost 4 years. Isn't it important to move ahead on this case? Extremely important? Is this twilight zone fair to anybody except those in government who -- if wrongdoing occurred -- might look responsible? Just saying.
Because in today's Vancouver Sun there's an
Ian Mulgrew story about a resident of North Vancouver who has practised the black arts on our province for 5 years before it could safely be said right out loud that
Omid Tahvili is a crime boss.
For 5 years, Omid Tahvili too enjoyed the special protection of "innocent until proven guilty". For 5 dangerous years, Omid Tahvili played havoc with the lives of other people.
Mulgrew describes the workaday schedule of a crime boss: drug trafficking, money laundering, fraud, bilking seniors of their savings, robbery, torture, fencing stolen cars, kidnapping.
"But as with so many of the upper-echelon criminals in the Lower Mainland, Tahvili managed to thumb his nose at the law until he was arrested in 2005 on these multiple counts." Huh? I looked twice, three times, at that comment. Upper-echelon criminals? Lower Mainland? Thumbing their noses at the law?
It all sounds terribly familiar. - BC Mary.
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KINGPIN OF PERSIAN ORGANIZED CRIME FINALLY CONVICTED
Crime boss was involved in trafficking drugs, laundering money and bilking seniors across the continent Ian Mulgrew
Vancouver Sun - Thursday, October 11, 2007
NORTH SHORE - Prosecutors have finally managed to convict a North Shore-based Persian organized-crime kingpin involved in trafficking drugs, laundering money and bilking seniors across the continent.
After lengthy proceedings in New Westminster involving charges of kidnapping and torture, Omid Tahvili now faces lengthy imprisonment and extradition to the U.S.
Tahvili, who arrived from Iran in 1994, came to the attention of authorities after he and his brother-in-law were nabbed on Nov. 30, 2000, with three kilograms of cocaine.
By 2003, at an immigration detention hearing, the RCMP's three-person Integrated Persian Intelligence Section identified Tahvili's group as one of the main outfits operating from within the province's Iranian community.
But, as with so many of the upper-echelon criminals in the Lower Mainland, Tahvili managed to thumb his nose at the law until he was arrested in 2005 on these multiple counts. {Snip} ...
A 37-year-old married man with two kids, who seemingly operated luxury car-rental firms and a detailing company, Tahvili did not take the stand for good reason. The prosecution would have shown him for what he was -- a long-time, big-time hoodlum.
His bust in 2000 was part of a joint Vancouver police-RCMP investigation targeting mid-level drug traffickers who supplied street-level dealers.
The undercover sweep, which resulted in 39 charges against nine people, also netted eight kilos of opium, half a kilo of methamphetamine and 113 grams of Ecstasy. But Tahvili convinced the judge in that case it wasn't his dope, and his brother-in-law copped a plea.
According to police intelligence put before an Immigration Board detention hearing in 2003, Tahvili's gang numbered between 20 and 30 Persian ex-pats and others, including a known contract killer.
They were said to be fencing stolen autos, trafficking in heroin, opium and crystal meth as well as engaging in fraud and robbery.
By July of 2004, Tahvili's involvement in organized crime spurred the federal government to begin deportation proceedings against him. But Ottawa halted them after these charges were laid the following year and Tahvili imprisoned to await trial.
In this case, Tahvili and brother-in-law
Alvin Royhit Pal were charged with kidnapping a Surrey man in an effort to recover $350,000 of the group's drug money that went missing from Purolator Courier's Richmond warehouse.
Pal, who pleaded guilty in the 2000 cocaine bust and served 11 months, was on parole at the time of the kidnapping.
He was acquitted because the judge wasn't sure the victim fingered the right man.
Evidence showed that in tracking the missing money, Tahvili learned a suspected courier employee had quit and returned to Vietnam.
On June 20, 2005, Tahvili kidnapped the man's brother-in-law in an attempt to wring from him information about the missing cash.
That man's identity is protected by court order because he knew nothing about the missing money and, in the course of the ordeal, he was sexually assaulted.
The man testified that two men arrived at his home in a Porsche 911 looking to test-drive a used Mercedes he was selling.
He got in the car with one. {Snip ... ugh!}
During the investigation, Toronto police confiscated $109,000 in cash found inside a silver BMW-X5 in North York with one of the gang's eastern members. In Richmond, the RCMP seized another package containing $200,000 from Purolator.
In the RCMP's interview with Tahvili after his arrest, Sgt. Al Proulx described him as the "ringleader, kingpin, the top dog of laundering money. You're the boss."
In May, Tahvili, his other brother-in-law,
Reginald Sanjay Pal, and
Derrick Joseph Squires were ordered extradited to the U.S. to face charges for running a global telemarketing fraud that targeted vulnerable, elderly Americans.
Under the scheme, between March 1999 and May 2002, telemarketers called people telling them they had won a lottery or windfall through a little-known British investment program.
Before they could collect their cash, however, they had to remit certain "fees" to cover taxes, currency conversion costs and similar supposedly incidental expenses.
As the boss, Tahvili allegedly provided financing for the shell companies behind the scam, while his supposed second-in-command Pal, closed "sales" and dealt with the credit-card processing firm.
Both the FBI and RCMP were involved in that investigation, which uncovered more than $3 million US in losses.
There is little question nailing Tahvili is a significant event, and the investigators deserve kudos.
Still, Tahvili was on police radar the moment he was arrested in that Nov. 2000 swoop. Yet he continued on his merry way, increasing in stature as a crime boss, for another half decade.
His tenure as a North Vancouver, Persian Tony Soprano is testament to the woeful lack of resources this province devotes to fighting organized crime. imulgrew@png.canwest.com
