Independent Soldier gang member jailed for carrying firearm

A longtime member of the Independent Soldiers gang is behind bars after allegedly carrying a firearm contrary to a court order.

Donald Bryce Lyons, 45, was arrested in Revelstoke on April 14 by B.C.’s anti-gang unit.

He remains in custody and is scheduled to appear in a Vernon courtroom on May 11.

Sgt. Brenda Winpenny, of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, said that Lyons was the subject of a drug investigation in Vernon when he was arrested on the gun charge.

“In the course of that investigation, Lyons was found to be in possession of firearms against a court-imposed prohibition,” Winpenny said Friday. “He is being held due to those charges.” She said the original drug investigation is ongoing.

Lyons’s arrest came three weeks after Dustin Rogers, a 26-year-old member of the Independent Soldiers, was found murdered near the intersection of Wilson Jackson and Jordache roads in Vernon.

Rogers had travelled to Thailand and Indonesia in the weeks before his death with other members of the IS from Calgary.

His gang-mates then attended his funeral on April 15.

Lyons has a long history with police. He had his parole revoked in November 2014 for hanging out with criminals, just months after being granted statutory release on drug trafficking and firearms convictions in both Manitoba and B.C.

In December 2012, Lyons was returned to prison after allegations he put a hit out on someone.

Corrections officials couldn’t confirm the information, and he was later released.

In July 2013, he was accused of assaulting

“In the course of that investigation, Lyons was found to be in possession of firearms against a court-imposed prohibition.” — SGT. BRENDA WINPENNY COMBINED FORCES SPECIAL ENFORCEMENT UNIT

a girlfriend and picked up for violating his parole.

He was charged with assault and later pleaded guilty to uttering a death threat.

Parole documents from 2014 state that he was “observed by police with three other men who all have criminal records.”

“The three men were wearing disguises, were in possession of weapons, and were believed by police to be planning to break into a marijuana grow-op.”

Two of those caught with Lyons were also on parole conditions.

After he was returned to jail, Lyons claimed to corrections officials that he didn’t really know the men he was with, and that they had each denied they had criminal records. The parole board wasn’t buying it. “The board notes that you were in the community for less than a month before your release was suspended,” the board decision said.

“You chose to put yourself in a high-risk situation and you appear to have been involved in the planning of potential criminal activity.”