Pubdate: Fri, 23 Apr 2010 Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC) Copyright: 2010 The Vancouver Sun Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/letters.html Website: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477 Author: Ian Mulgrew GUNS, DRUGS AND MONEY FOUND, BUT GANGSTERS WALK ON WORST CHARGES Two notorious B.C. underworld figures -- James Riach and Barry Espadilla of the Independent Soldiers -- have been acquitted of numerous charges although their luxury Yaletown apartment was stuffed with drugs, money and an arsenal. Riach was convicted solely of possession and careless storage of a loaded .45-calibre semiautomatic Glock pistol found under his mattress. Espadilla was convicted only of heroin and cocaine possession. Justice Terence Schultes couldn't decide whether either man, or which one, or both were connected to the cache of guns and ammunition found in the swanky digs. Both these men are well known to police, as they say, and were present at the infamous meeting of Vancouver's most feared thugs at Castle Fun Park in December 2006. Red Scorpions Jamie Bacon, Dennis Karbovanec and Anton Hooites-Meursing and other known gangsters were on hand for that parley. Karbovanec and Hooites-Meursing have since confessed to murder and been sent to prison. At the time, Espadilla was out on parole from a manslaughter conviction. In this instance, the Integrated Gang Task Force arrested Riach and Espadilla on April 10, 2008, in their 1,400-square-foot apartment on Homer Street with rooms on the 13th and 14th floors joined by an inter-connecting staircase. In a closet near the entrance door, a 12-gauge, a .223-calibre semi-automatic rifle and .22-250-bolt-action rifle stood ready. Two bulletproof vests, of different sizes, hung inside a suit bag. "This closet was not being used for hanging up coats," Justice Schultes wryly remarked. In the top drawer of a dresser in the hallway upstairs, police found a Ruger .44-magnum revolver, a .22-calibre long-rifle Ruger semi-automatic pistol with a silencer attached and two five-shot revolvers originally designed for firing blanks but modified to fire .22-calibre ammunition. They also seized a total of 108 rounds of .22-calibre ammunition in various containers, five kits for converting a Glock semi-automatic pistol to automatic firing and a cartridge magazine for a semi-automatic pistol. In a closet, next to the laundry room, police found a shoebox full of "flaps" used for selling powdered drugs such as cocaine at the street level. Underneath was a tool box containing six bags of cocaine weighing 341 grams and a bag of heroin weighing 7.3 grams. The drugs had a street value of about $30,000. A scale, money-counting machine, bags and other trafficking paraphernalia were also found. Three separate large amounts of cash were found: . $10,000 in $100 bills in the second bedroom in a photo container also bearing photos of Espadilla and his family. . $6,300 also in $100 bills in a bag in the closet of the same bedroom. . $11,300, consisting of a bundle of $9,000 in $100 bills, and smaller bundles of $600 and $1,700 found on the coffee table in the living room. The two had rented the apartment for $3,697 a month since November 2007; Riach used the master bedroom and Espadilla the second bedroom. Riach was home with a date when the cops burst in; Espadilla was arrested when he arrived home later. He copped to the drugs and money-counting machine, saying he alone was the dealer but he didn't know anything about the guns. Riach was convicted with respect to the Glock but walked on the other gun charges. Lots of people had access to the apartment, the two men claimed, given their peripatetic lifestyle: People flopped there and partied there. Apparently other people brought the guns to the apartment without the knowledge of either accused. As for Riach being found in the living room with $11,300 for which he couldn't legitimately account, Justice Schultes could not conclude he was connected to the drugs. "While I can think of no other reason that he would be entitled to possess this money than as the fruits of participation in the trafficking enterprise," he said, "I am nonetheless left with a reasonable doubt about his guilt on this point, based on the remoteness of possession of the money from the actual activities of possession of and trafficking in the drugs, the absence of any similar proceeds in his own bedroom (in contrast to Mr. Espadilla's) and Mr. Espadilla's assertion that Mr. Riach had no involvement." The justice also couldn't quite connect both men to the weapons. "The critical question in this trial is whether the Crown has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused had the required degree of knowledge of and control over the items to constitute possession of them," he said. In his opinion, the prosecution didn't do that on most of the charges. Hmmm. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake