IS THIS THE CRIME FAMILY OF 2009?

Death, Drugs and Police Raids Keep Bryan Family in the Headlines

Move over Bacon brothers. There's another clan making a bid for Crime
Family of the Year.

Meet the Bryans: siblings Michael and Tiffany, both with strong
connections to B.C.'s
violent underworld.

Tiffany, 24, is under house arrest for dealing drugs. Her best friend,
Brianna Kinnear, was shot to death in a targeted hit in February
driving Tiffany's pickup.

Michael, 26, who last year was convicted of drug trafficking -- and
earlier had several gun charges against him stayed -- was charged with
drug trafficking again Friday.

He and his parents were taken down and handcuffed during an RCMP raid
on the Bryans' Port Coquitlam home on Thursday.

His parents were apprehended solely for investigative purposes and
have not been charged, police said.

Tiffany, who used to live with her parents in the home, was not
targeted in Thursday's RCMP plainclothes-team operation.

Mounties arrested the Bryans following numerous complaints from
neighbours on Osprey Place, where parents Bill and Debora own the home
assessed at $459,400.

Michael was taken down after leaving the house, as were Debora and her
youngest son. Bill was arrested in the home, where he'd been sleeping.

Eight neighbours had reported to police suspicious activity at the
home, and all were concerned about the family's presence attracting
violence such as that which killed Kinnear, said one resident.

RCMP allege they found 1.36 kilograms of marijuana in Michael's
bedroom during the raid, and over the previous week had arrested two
men who allegedly bought pot from him, police said.

Michael is charged with two counts of dealing pot and one count of
possession for trafficking purposes.

His parents and brother were apprehended solely for investigative
purposes, and have not been charged, police said.

Tiffany, deemed by RCMP to be one of the most prolific criminals in
the Port Coquitlam and Coquitlam area, in March received a 21-month
sentence of house arrest for selling and possessing drugs after a 2007
bust in Port Moody in which police seized cocaine, crystal meth, the
opiate painkiller oxycodone and marijuana.

Her co-accused in that incident included Kinnear, killed in February,
and Jesse John Margison, who survived a December 2007 shooting.

Margison faces multiple charges related to the July 2007 mutilation of
a Metro Vancouver man that followed the disappearance of a quantity of
drugs and money.

At least three people believed to be linked to the late Kinnear's crew
- -- which has a reputation for violent ripoffs of dial-a-dope
operations -- have been shot to death.

Bill Bryan, a forklift operator and delivery driver for two printing
companies, told me Friday he didn't know anything about alleged drug
dealing at his home, and said he and his wife were not involved in
drug-related activity.

Debora is a secretary at Birchland elementary school. A young female
pupil who answered the school's phone Friday said Debora wasn't at
work but is "a nice lady."

Like Debora, the father of the notorious Bacon brothers, David Bacon,
has a job working with schoolkids, but he has been on paid
administrative leave from the Abbotsford School District since
January, when his son Jamie escaped an assassination attempt that left
his leased Mercedes riddled with bullets.

Shortly after I reported Tiffany's connection to the slain Kinnear,
Tiffany called and left me a tearful message saying, "I just want to
talk to you about Brianna."

When I called back, she let loose a profanity-laced tirade saying, "My
safety's in danger" and told me my reporting was going to get her
killed. She hung up before I could respond.

Debora may be a nice lady, and when I called her at home Friday
afternoon she was understandably upset, which is probably why she
said, "Anything you say, I will sue you."

Bill, whom I'd talked to earlier in the day, was a bit more
forthcoming, though he claimed not to know what his wife did for a
living.

He said he bore no hard feelings toward police. "They're just doing
their job," Bill said.

He told me Tiffany was turning her life around. "I think she's doing
quite well," Bill said.

Just because two of the Bryan children have been swimming in B.C.'s
bloody underworld doesn't mean Debora and Bill are bad parents.

But it sure makes you wonder.