Former B.C. Hells Angel gunned down outside Toronto strip mall
A former B.C. Hells Angel was shot to death over the weekend outside a strip mall in Toronto.
James Clayton “Jamie” Holland, 43, was once a member of the elite Nomads chapter of the Hells Angels, then based in Burnaby.
He was kicked out of the B.C. biker gang in 2006, but continued to operate several companies in this province for years.
Toronto police issued a news release Sunday confirming that Holland had been shot several times about 9:43 p.m. outside a North York plaza from which a marijuana dispensary operated.
He was pronounced dead at the scene. Some media reports said that Holland was linked to the dispensary, but the mall landlord refused to comment to Postmedia.
Staff Sgt. Lindsey Houghton of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit said Toronto homicide investigators have contacted the B.C. anti-gang agency because of Holland’s history in this province.
Holland was a wealthy member of the Angels, retired Vancouver police Det. Brad Stephen said Monday. And he continued to be a rich man even after he left the notorious motorcycle club.
“He was a wealthy individual. He owned luxury automobiles. He owned multiple highrise downtown condominiums,” Stephen said.
Before Holland relocated to Ontario, he was often staying in the Wall Centre on Burrard Street.
It was the same hotel where Holland’s close friend Sandip Duhre was gunned down in January 2012.
The former biker and the B.C. gangster were so close that Holland loaned Duhre and his brother a customized BMW that had been made bulletproof. A gunman opened fire on the car on Kingsway in July 2005, but the bullets bounced off.
Stephen, a former Vancouver police Hells Angels specialist, said a lot of B.C. Hells Angels got rich during the period Holland was active in the club.
“Generally speaking, Hells Angels from his era that are as wealthy as him have attained their wealth through establishing effective cocaine importation and distribution networks and marijuana exportation networks,” he said.
“Holland is one of those guys that maintained his criminal enterprise and was very effective in insulating himself from the police and maintaining success for a number of years, both inside of the club and outside of the club. And there are not too many people who can say that.”
Stephen said police would “always see his Lamborghini come tearing out of that Wall Centre parkade.”
He said the Hells Angels are just like the rest of society.
“There are lower class, middle class and upper class. He was an upperclassman with a very successful criminal enterprise,” Stephen said.
Corporate records show Holland was once a director or founder of at least four different B.C. companies.
He was the president of Clayton Investments Ltd., founded in 2002 and dissolved in 2011 by the Corporate Registry for failing to file an annual report.
He was also president of a company called Voyager Market Consultants that was dissolved last year, again for failing to file annual reports, according to the B.C. Corporate Registry.
Holland continued to list Voyager on his LinkedIn profile, describing himself as a “tech entrepreneur and financier.”
A second numbered company that had been registered in B.C. and listed Holland as president was also dissolved in 2016.
He was also the secretary of a company called GJP Holdings Ltd., which was headed by fellow Nomad Gino Zumpano. That B.C. company was dissolved for failure to file reports in 2007. Sources say Holland left the Hells Angels on bad terms after getting into a money dispute with a fellow biker.
Hells Angels spokesman Ricky Ciarniello did not respond to a request for a comment on Holland’s murder. Holland was inside Vancouver’s Loft Six nightclub when a gang shootout erupted in August 2003, leaving three people dead.
He was among the dozens of people rounded up by police and taken in for questioning minutes after the shooting, but was released without charges. Holland was convicted in 2003 of illegally possessing a restricted weapon — a loaded Combat Commander handgun that had its serial number altered — after he was stopped by Vancouver police at the Granville Mall. He received an $8,000 fine and was prohibited from possessing guns or ammunition for five years.