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.