GANG LEADER'S LIFE CAUGHT ON TAPE

[name redacted] boasts of drug connections, talks of buying guns in
wiretaps before his arrest

The day before United Nations gang leader Clay [name redacted] was arrested as
he tried to enter Mexico last year, he and an associate chatted in his
Coquitlam condo about Armani, hot yoga and drug deals.

Ganging up: from left, Johnny (K9) Croitoru, Lou [name3 redacted], unknown,
Clay [name redacted], unknown, and Elliot (Taco) Castaneda. Croitoru is now
charged in B.C. with conspiring to kill the Bacon brothers, Kawaach
and Castaneda were shot to death in Mexico in July 2008.

[name redacted] had already started packing for the trip, which he expected to
last just "five or six days," according to a police wiretap obtained
by The Vancouver Sun.

He had no idea that 24 hours later, he would be sitting in a Texas
cell, turned away from Mexico and facing a series of conspiracy and
money laundering charges that could see him spend the next 30 years
behind bars.

[name redacted] sounds cocky and confident on the hours and hours of
recordings filed as exhibits at the U.S. District court registry.

The wiretaps provide a fascinating glimpse into the massive
cross-Canada undercover operation targeting the notorious B.C. gang
founded by [name redacted] in 1997.

Agents from the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit planted
listening devices in a Montreal hotel room and inside several Lower
Mainland residences, including [name redacted]'s. They bugged cellphones, land
lines and cars. They monitored text messages. And they followed their
targets for months, snapping photos with long lenses.

The recordings provided to the U.S. Attorney for [name redacted]'s sentencing
in Seattle next week show the Fraser Valley boyturned gang leader
enthusiastically discussing drug deals, gun purchases, international
connections, rivalries and alliances. Heboasts of connections in
China, India, Mexico and South America. And he also chats about the
more mundane - home decor, fashion and even growing old and whether
Botox might reduce wrinkles.

Talked of drug deals

The Sun obtained several hours of the recordings made between late
2007 up to May 16, 2008 - the day before [name redacted]'s arrest.

"I amwearing shorts today - too hot," [name redacted] told a person identified
in court documents as UN associate [name2 redacted].

[name redacted], then 33, complained that his hip was killing him after a
fight in Montreal the previous month.

"I am falling apart. Tendonitis in the elbow, my hips f---ed up," he
complained. " I am leftlegged. I used to knock people out with my left
leg like all the time.. my flexibility is not the same."

[name2 redacted] suggested that hot yoga might help.

"WhenIwent to hot yoga, [the instructor] looked at me and said 'oh,
you are a project,'" [name2 redacted] said. "I never sweated so much in my
life.
I can't do it again. It is too much for me. I nearly puked."

They spoke of their trip, whether they needed a passport for Mexico
and how much cash each was bringing to the wedding of another UN
gangster from B.C.

[name redacted] agreed with [name2 redacted] that Armani makes the best
shirts -
particularly the Vnecks.

"The one I got in Montreal is pretty sick," [name redacted]
said.

And then they got down to business.

[name2 redacted] talked about getting 55 kilograms of "kush" - slang for
marijuana - and the profit he would make from it.

And [name redacted] said he needed [name2 redacted] to pick up a quantity
of drugs
before the trip.

"Pick up the eight and then pick up the 20 in the morning. The money's
being dropped off for the 20 right now," [name redacted] ordered.

Hegave [name2 redacted]acode to use in the transaction - 777.

" You know [$ 18,500] for everything is a really good price for drugs
right now," [name redacted] said.

He complained to [name2 redacted], who has not been charged despite
incriminating comments on the tapes, that some "Chinese guys" are
holding a large shipment of his drugs.

"It is f---ing bullshit. I won't deal with them. There is abunch of
guys - a big crew - they're holding my shit right now. They are making
up lies. They are slimy," [name redacted] said. " I just want to reach across
the table and slap them." [name redacted] boasts that he can " kill anybody's
price."

[name redacted] repeated the UN rules in several different wiretapped
conversations, talking to various associates. Sometimes he would
forget one or two of the points. He never explained why the rules exist.

The first rule is never to have sex with someone's wife, [name redacted]
said.

Rule two is "don't let anyone touch your head," [name redacted] said. "Don't
walk under a clothesline. Don't drink out of someone else's glass - if
you have your own it is okay. If you wash it out, you can use it."

Gang members also cannot eat "dog, cat or snake," [name redacted] said, adding
that pork was okay.

"All those things take away the power," he said.

He also said UN members could not wear a symbolic string to a
funeral.

" The dead bodies suck the spirit out of it."

Practice shots heard

The violence of the gangland world is also a common
theme.

[name2 redacted] mentioned a business trip back east with Ricardo Scarpino,
agangster executed in downtown Vancouver in January 2008.

[name redacted] told his associate that people were after [name2 redacted]
on that trip
and wanted to kill him because they thought he "f---ed up the market."

On March 27, 2008, just after 1:30 p.m., [name redacted] welcomed a visitor to
his 13th-floor condo.

The unidentified man is talking to [name redacted] about a firearm he had
worked on for the gang boss.

The gunsmith said he had made sure his product was quiet. The clicking
of practice shots can be heard, along with [name redacted] laughing.

" T h a t ' s what we want," [name redacted] said of the reduced sound.
"That's the whole point. There is no f---ing point to this if it
doesn't work. You getabig f--ing charge-who wants
that?"

After [name redacted] was arrested, police found a Glock inside his condo that
had been illegally smuggled from Washington state.

The tapes include occasional concerns by the UN gangsters that law
enforcement was on to them.

[name redacted] joked with one associate that his cellphone might be bugged by
police.

And when he was chatting in the apartment of another associate, which
was also bugged by police, they both expressed concern that a
girlfriend of Lou [name3 redacted], their connection in Mexico, was an
undercover operator.

"They don't trust the female. They think she is maybe a possible fed
from Interpol or something," [name redacted] said. "She just magically calls
him on his line. She is super hot. Like very possessive. A freak in
bed. Never leaves the house. Always asking questions.. She keeps
trying to get him to go back up here. If he came back up here they
could grab him and do whatever they wanted to him. He would be
screwed. Right? They probably want him pretty bad because he has done
a lot of shit."

[name redacted] describes [name3 redacted] as "a ladies man," always trying
to rap
about his gangster life in Mexico. "We are going to take you for a
ride in Guadalajara and throw you in the ditch and say sayonara,"
[name redacted] said, laughing.

[name3 redacted] was gunned down in Guadalajara i n July 2008 along with
[name4 redacted], another UN gang member from Abbotsford. Both murders
remain unsolved.

Despite the UN gang's reputation as a tolerant multi-ethnic crime
group, [name redacted] is heard on the wiretaps using derogatory terms for
blacks, Chinese and Mexicans.

Gripes about young cops

[name2 redacted] and [name redacted] chatted about much more than the drug
business as
agents listened clandestinely.

When [name redacted] visited his friend's condo in February 2008, he
complimented [name2 redacted] on his home improvement projects - " The kitchen
looks pimped," he said. "You painted your bedroom my colour. It is a
relaxing colour."

[name2 redacted] agreed, " It is a relaxing colour - I love my house right now.
It is f---ing beautiful."

[name2 redacted] complained that cops these days were younger and younger - one
he saw recently looked like "an SFU student. I never would have
guessed he was a cop."

[name redacted] then contemplated aging: "What are you going to do when you
get old? Botox your head?"

Gangsters chat about drugs, guns, money and the mob

Clayton [name redacted] and his associates travelled to Montreal in April 2008
to watch an ultimate fighting championship event.

He held court in room 407 of the W-Hotel with organized crime contacts
stopping by. One of those was a Mafia leader, according to documents
filed in the U.S. court.

Spending lots of time with [name redacted], according to court documents, was
Johnny (K-9) Croitoru, the professional wrestler now charged in B.C.
with plotting to kill the Bacon brothers and their Red Scorpion associates.

"There is one big crazy guy out here who f---ing thinks theMexicans
and the UN are f---ing up the market," [name redacted] told the person
identified in court documents as Croitoru. "They are just having
meetings because the Mexicans before I was involved were just straight
flooding the city."

[name redacted] bragged to Croitoru that there were two Montreal " crews" that
wanted to work with the UN.

" And they got 70 guys out here. But they sort of stay neutral. They
like to be quiet and make money," [name redacted] said.

Croitoru told [name redacted] that he had his own contact who wanted to work
with them.

"He makes 25 keys a month of this crystal meth," Croitoru said. "We
could get rich with this."

Croitoru explained that his methmanhadabeef with someone and needed
protection.

"I'll get the f---ing money for protection and we'll get good prices
for the s---," Croitoru said.

[name redacted] agreed, " We can make tons."

Croitoru suddenly realized that a visitor to room 407 has forgotten
his man purse.

" Hey dawgie, give him his pouch," he said to [name redacted], as the UN boss
opened the door and yelled down the hallway. The pouch owner didn't
return.

"There are guns in the pouch," Croitoru said. "He's got a nice little
f---ing 15 with a clip in it."

"Nice," [name redacted] said, adding that he would keep it.

[name redacted] said that he has been working with South American drug
cartels.

"I got given a big responsibility by the guys way down south, I am
just hoping that it works out."

Croitoru asked for a piece of the action. "Dawgie, when are you going
to let me in to make big, big money?

"You've got connections buddy. Let's make it happen," Croitoru
said.

[name redacted] complained that other traffickers had not been giving him a
cut.

"Ihave to makemyown moves and s---, which I've been doing. I think
that one collectionI got is good, right," [name redacted] said.

And he said he has another collection in the works linked to "bikers'
buddies."

"In the long run we'll make money. This guy has got the No. 1 flower
line in L.A. CODs everything. Hebuys E," [name redacted] said. "We can get
some cheap labour and everything from him. And because the other guy
who owns him owes us money, we can just take it over."

[name redacted] worried the mobster would be nervous if Croitoru remained in
the room.

"I don't want to sketch this guy out," [name redacted] said. "He doesn't want
to seenobody. Heis like an oldtimer."

Croitoru offered to act as [name redacted]'s bodyguard and stand outside in
the hallway.

"This guy controls all the import and exports, the transportation in
Eastern Canada," [name redacted] said. "He gets product on an airplane in
Venezuela."

[name redacted] said he got some chromium, a chemical that can be used to
produce illegal pharmaceuticals.

"I got some s---I want to f--with," [name redacted] said.

[name redacted] laughed when he told Croitoru that his associates were down in
the hotel bar.

"All our guys are sitting with the mob and bikers. They are sharing a
table," [name redacted] said. "Hopefully it works out right."

He triumphantly declared to Croitoru that he had "f---ing keys all
over the city right now."

[name redacted] also said that he had been in the drug trade since he was 19,
but blew most of his money in the early years.

"I don't know what the f---I did with all my money back then. I just
spent it like a f---ing idiot. I don't know what the hell I had to
show for it," [name redacted] said. "You would just go out with 30 guys and
catch the bill and you would be broke."

On an earlier recording, [name redacted] also reminisced about the good old
days and how his associates were buying "1,000 poundsaweek" of pot
from him.

"They had three f---ing rental houses and we would come in with
garbage bags full of this s--and they would be counting and weighing
and bagging and tagging and looking and giving prices and I had all my
weed guys because they were all from the valley. I knew every grower
in the country."