RCMP AGENT DENIES HYPING ANY EVIDENCE

VANCOUVER - Michael Plante, the million-dollar RCMP agent who
infiltrated the Hells Angels, denied Thursday that he hyped the
evidence against an accused drug trafficker in the biker gang in
order to collect another $500,000 from police.

Plante stood his ground against repeated suggestions by defence
lawyer Greg DelBigio that Plante exaggerated or misinterpreted
comments by Ronnie Lising about the alleged purchase of a kilo of
methamphetamine.

"You understand the remaining $500,000 you receive depends in part on
whether Mr. Lising gets convicted?" DelBigio asked.

But Plante told B.C. Supreme Court that he understood he would be
paid the balance of what police had promised for spying on the
notorious biker gang "as long as I show up in court."

But DelBigio showed Plante pre-trial testimony from last fall in
which the agent admitted a conviction would help.

Lising, a full-patch member of the East End Hells Angels, and Nima
Ghavami, a club associate, were charged with meth trafficking after a
massive RCMP undercover operation dubbed E-Pandora that culminated in
a July 2005 police raid on two Hells Angels clubhouses and the arrest
of 18 people, including six Hells Angels members.

Plante testified earlier that on Aug. 26, 2004, at an East Hastings
restaurant, Lising turned his wrist like he was starting a car to
indicate he needed a "key" -- a kilogram -- of meth.

But DelBigio suggested Thursday that maybe Lising was trying to say
he needed a new ignition for his car or "was he adjusting his sleeve?"

Plante was adamant that Lising was "asking me whether he can get a key."

"That's everyone in the underworld's interpretation," Plante said of
the signal.

DelBigio: "It is not some secret Hells Angels thing -- you say
everyone in the underworld does it?"

Plante: "Correct."

The agent, who admitted to selling drugs while working for police,
said he was taken aback by the request from Lising since it came
while the Hells Angel was out on bail.

"I knew he was on bail for drugs so it was a surprise," Plante told
Justice Victor Curtis.

Much of Plante's interactions with Lising in August and September
2004 were bugged by police or video-taped.

DelBigio said it was suspicious that the conversation during which
Lising allegedly asked for the meth was neither taped nor photographed.

"All this court has to rely upon is your word," DelBigio said, to
which Plante replied: "Correct."

Plante said he dropped the kilo of meth off at Bob's Deli in
Champlain Mall, which is owned by Lising's brother.

DelBigio suggested the drugs were actually for Bob Lising and not for Ronnie.

"You knew the drugs were not for him," DelBigio said of his client.

Plante said Ronnie Lising was the one calling all the shots in the transaction.

But he also admitted he had gone to Champlain Mall before to pick up
three kilos of meth with Randy Potts, another man linked to the Hells Angels.

Ghavami lawyer Don Morrison got Plante to admit that there were few
references to his client in the volumes of transcripts of
conversations taped by police.

Meanwhile, in a related case, Wissam Mohammed (Sam) Ayach, who was
trafficking drugs for the East End Hells Angels, was sentenced to
four years in jail after pleading guilty in New Westminster Supreme
Court in December to kidnapping Ryan Danchuk with intent to confine
him against his will.

Reasons for sentencing were released this week.

Ayach "also collected drug debts on behalf of the Eastside chapter by
seizing and selling a drug debtor's property," Justice Daphne Smith
said in her reasons for sentencing. She also said Ayach had been a
model prisoner since his July 2005 arrest in E-Pandora and had
claimed he was suffering post-traumatic stress disorder in part
because he was beaten and threatened by Plante, the police agent.