ORGANIZED CRIME IN REVELSTOKE

Two local men feel trapped and victimized after they learned their business
was owned by an organized crime ring in Manitoba.

Neil Jones and Martin Ralph of Trans Canada Fitness had no idea that the
business' absentee owner, Roger Bruneau, of Winnipeg was involved in the
manufacture and distribution of methamphetamines.

They found out only when a police task force from Manitoba, armed with a
warrant, raided their gym and seized documents and computer hard drives.

No drugs were seized there and neither has been charged.

Despite that the two feel doubly victimized: first by Bruneau, a former
Revelstokian Jones had known when he lived here, and second by an unknown
person who has been posting printouts of Internet-sourced stories about
similar raids in Manitoba at strategic locations around town. Although the
person who is posting that material is unknown, his motive is apparently to
discredit the local gym by linking it to the methamphetamine ring.

"We have clearly been victimized," Ralph, the company business manager said
in an interview.

"First by organized crime and now by this smear campaign."

He and Jones, the general manager, said Bruneau who is alleged to have ties
to the Hell's Angels and other recognized crime organizations contacted
them after the raid and suggested they buy him out. The Revelstoke branch
of Trans Canada Fitness is worth about $250,000.

However, given the raid and the nature of the investigation, which includes
the RCMP, Winnipeg Police Service and the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration, they declined.

"They (police) told us it will eventually be forfeit to the Crown," Jones
said, adding that they might then be able to buy it themselves.

In the meantime, they have issued a statement they hope makes it clear to
everyone in Revelstoke that they themselves are clean.

"We wish to reassure our members and the public of the following:

"1) Trans-Canada Fitness Centre Revelstoke, its operators and staff have
never been involved in any illegal activity, are not implicated in illegal
activity, and are not the subject of police investigation. This includes
money laundering activity or the solicitation to participate in money
laundering activity.

"2) Trans-Canada Fitness Centre Revelstoke strongly opposes the promotion
and use of all illegal drugs, including anabolic steroids and performance
enhancing drugs. We actively promote clean sport and the highest goals in
health and fitness. We have never had any connection to illegal drug use or
production, and categorically deny any implication. Drugs have never been
shipped to, stored or distributed from these premises and never will."

RCMP Staff Sgt. Randy Brown said Jones and Ralph are clear examples of what
can happen when criminal gangs forge links with unknowing business owners
and managers.

It's not like The Sopranos, he said.

"In real life they're vicious criminals who will do whatever they can to
whoever they can to achieve their goals," Brown said, adding that - as the
Trans-Canada Fitness case makes plain - organized crime is clearly at work
in Revelstoke.

And organized criminal gangs will continue to work at gaining influence in
Revelstoke, he said.

Pick up next week's Times Review to read the second in this two-part series
on organized crime.