34-YEAR SENTENCE URGED FOR TRAFFICKER

Robert Shannon 'Stirred A Toxic Cocktail Of Drug Addiction, Fear, And
Violence,' U.S. Attorney's Memo Says

The Metro Vancouver head of an international drug trafficking ring
that used the Hells Angels for muscle threatened a co-accused in a
letter from prison, saying he knew in which nursing home his elderly
grandmother lived.

Former Langley trucker Robert Shannon, who bragged that he earned
between $6 million and $7 million from drugs, ordered a hit on another
co-conspirator in the case, but the trigger man missed his target,
according to just-released U.S. court documents.

Shannon pleaded guilty last December to conspiracy to distribute
cocaine and marijuana and money-laundering and is to be sentenced in
Seattle on Friday.

Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Cornell said in a March 6
sentencing memo that Shannon should spend almost 34 years behind bars
because of the magnitude of the crime and the link to the Hells Angels.

He said the fact Shannon played a "vital role in the conspiracy makes
the offense conduct extremely serious. Coupled with his association
with the Hells Angels in Canada -- an organization with a well-known
influence on the international drug trade -- [the] defendant stirred a
toxic cocktail of drug addiction, fear, and violence throughout the
United States and Canada."

Shannon, Devron Quast of Abbotsford, and other Canadians are among 35
people charged after a four-year U.S. investigation involving tens of
millions of dollars worth of smuggled pot and cocaine.

Cornell's memo said that at one point, Shannon ordered a hit on a B.C.
man. "Specifically in an effort to avenge the protests of another
co-conspirator who felt he was not sufficiently paid his share of his
drug-trafficking proceeds, the defendant and others paid a total of
$70,000 to have the aggrieved co-conspirator killed," Cornell wrote.

"The target was a member of the Independent Soldiers, a violent gang
in Canada. Fortunately the killing did not occur because the assassin
missed his target."

The target is not named in the documents, but The Vancouver Sun has
learned it was Langley trucker Jody York, a former business partner of
Shannon whose house was shot up last October.

The document said Shannon also threatened Quast in letters from
prison. "The communications were an effort to prevent Mr. Quast from
cooperating with the government and to keep him apprised of ongoing
criminal conduct of others in Canada."

In one letter to Quast, the memo said Shannon wrote: "When I imagine
myself with Skeet and Hal sitting in the room with me, could I say
s--t about even 1 percent of our Biz, F--k no ... you sit in a room
with cops or prosecutor, you're a piece of shit. And bro' that isn't
us . ... I vouched for you."

"The implication of defendant's statement is clear; keep your mouth
shut or you and your family will get hurt," Cornell wrote.

He said that in the letter, Shannon "informed Mr. Quast that
defendant's Hells Angels associate's grandmother resided in the same
nursing home as Mr. Quast's grandmother. ... In this letter, Defendant
writes 'Please, please, please what ever you do keep your mouth
closed,' and later, defendant continued, 'if we tried to help
ourselves its our families that are at risk.'"

Shannon himself was kidnapped at one point during the drug conspiracy,
the documents said. "Had it not been for Mr. Quast paying $100,000 to
the kidnappers, defendant may have been killed."

Cornell said Shannon used the Hells Angels -- particularly his
Vancouver chapter buddy -- to threaten people when he needed to do
so.

"The government does not assert that defendant himself is a violent
person or that he personally engaged in violent acts to further the
goals of the conspiracy. Nevertheless, defendant's association with
members of the Hells Angels and other violent individuals multiplied
the propensity for violence in the community," the document said.

"These people were necessary to protect every pound and kilogram of
marijuana and cocaine from those who might try to take it from
defendant's criminal organization.

"One close associate of defendant is a known member of the Vancouver
Chapter of the Hells Angels. On at least one occasion, defendant
sought out this member of the Hells Angels to serve as muscle in an
effort to further the goals of the conspiracy."

The Hells Angels member was not named in Cornell's documents, but
Shannon is close to Vancouver full-patch member Hal Porteous and
appeared, along with York, in a rap video Porteous made under the
stage name Hal Heffner.

There is also a reference to "Hal" in Shannon's letter to Quast, which
is believed to indicate Porteous. The other man, identified as Skeet
in the letter, is believed to be Skeeter Russell.

Quast pleaded guilty last fall and is due to be sentenced next month
in Seattle.

The U.S. probe "has been one of the largest and most successful in the
history of federal prosecutions in the Western District of
Washington," Cornell said.

"Thus far, the investigation has led to the seizure of approximately
1,300 pounds of cocaine and 7,100 pounds of high-potency marijuana
from Canada, colloquially referred to as 'B.C. Bud.' Agents have also
seized $3,517,230 in United States currency. The conspiracy
distributed tens of thousands of pounds of marijuana into the United
States and exported thousands of pounds of cocaine into Canada."

Shannon was in charge of distributing cocaine and marijuana across
North America and directed smuggling activities. The drugs were hidden
in hollowed-out logs on trucks, within the false walls of cargo
containers and vehicles, within loads of commercial lumber, inside
large plastic pipes, and in the interior of a propane tanker.

Cocaine was brought back into Canada "using a church van, a propane
tanker and a motor home."

An earlier Sun investigation revealed that Shannon and York had
founded a Langley trucking company called Image Logistics in 2002,
along with another man, Richard Jansen, who also pleaded guilty in the
U.S. case. York was listed as president, while Shannon was
vice-president.

Cornell said "the size and influence of the organization was
staggering."

He said a 30-year-plus sentence was reasonable because of Shannon's
intimidation of Quast and because "of his efforts to inform him of
ongoing drug trafficking activities of others."

"Not even the possibility of life in prison could stop defendant's
misdeeds," Cornell said.

Shannon contemplated three decades behind bars in another letter from
prison. "Told my parents about the 30 years and my mom started
crying," he wrote.