ANGEL SEEKS BAIL
Larry Amero, 41, wants release after being charged earlier this year with conspiracy to murder two gangsters in 2012
A high-profile Hells Angel is trying to get released on bail after being charged earlier this year with conspiracy to murder two rival gangsters in 2012.
A three-day hearing began in B.C. Supreme Court on Wednesday to determine whether Larry Amero, 41, will be released into the community pending his trial. Evidence and submissions made during the hearing at the Vancouver Law Courts are covered by a routine ban on publication.
Amero, a member of the West Point chapter of the notorious biker gang, appeared in red prison garb, wearing horn-rimmed glasses, his long hair tied in a ponytail.
He flipped through a folder of documents during the proceedings, held before Justice Brenda Brown in a high-security courtroom.
Some of Amero’s family members sat in the public gallery, as did two police officers.
Amero was arrested in Ottawa in January and brought back to B.C. on charges that he plotted to kill Sandip Duhre and Sukh Dhak.
Duhre was shot to death in the Sheraton Wall Centre in downtown Vancouver on Jan. 17, 2012. Dhak was gunned down outside the Executive Hotel in Burnaby on Nov. 26, 2012.
Amero was seriously wounded in the Aug. 14, 2011 shooting in Kelowna that left Red Scorpion gangster Jonathan Bacon dead and Independent Soldier James Riach uninjured.
At the time, The Vancouver Sun reported the trio had formed a new gang alliance called the Wolf Pack.
The Kelowna trial of three gangsters who pleaded guilty last May to playing roles in the 2011 shooting heard that Dhak was one of the masterminds of the plot.
The Kelowna trial also heard that Amero was shot in the face, wrist and chest as he, Bacon, Riach and two women were driving away from the Delta Grande Hotel in a Porsche Cayenne after a weekend of boating and partying in the Okanagan city.
On Wednesday, Amero showed no obvious outward signs of the injuries he suffered seven years ago.
The Sun earlier reported that Amero was arrested in Montreal in November 2012 and charged in a major cocaine smuggling case. He remained in pretrial custody in Quebec until his charges were stayed in 2017 after his lawyer successfully argued that the case took too long to get to trial.
Amero has worked as a longshoreman in B.C. and even sponsored a fellow Hells Angel for membership in his union while in custody back east. Also charged in connection with the Duhre and Dhak murders are Rabih (Robby) Alkhalil and Dean Wiwchar. Both men remain in custody.