Court hears recording of key meeting between RCMP informant and Hells Angel on trial for role in massive drug-trafficking ring

A year after infiltrating a massive drug-trafficking network, the informant known as Agent 66 was finally face-to-face with one of the organized-crime group’s alleged leaders, full-patch Hells Angel Damion Ryan.

It had been a long road to this lunchtime meeting at a Montreal restaurant, Dec . 9, 2021, a journey secretly recorded by RCMP every step of the way.

“Mr. Wolf, how’s it going?” the agent said by way of greeting, referencing one of Ryan’s many criminal aliases used in his alleged role within the Wolf Pack Alliance, an organized-crime group comprised of various high-level Canadian gangsters and drug traffickers.

“Nice to meet you, bud,” the man alleged to be Ryan replied.

The men, joined by a Ryan confederate, sat down at a table and fell into easy small talk, telling each other about their kids, their family backgrounds and sharing complaints about cold Winnipeg winters.

Ryan said he was tired. “I have a new baby keeping me up,” he said.

After several minutes, the man alleged to be Ryan suggested he and Agent 66 move to a more private table. It was time to talk business.

“So, what do you want to do here?” Ryan asked the informant.

Agent 66 told him he wanted to buy kilos of cocaine directly from Toronto for delivery to Winnipeg, as opposed to buying the drugs in B.C., a move that would cut his transportation expenses.

“I’ll see if I can find someone to do that run,” the man alleged to be Ryan said. “Let me look into the transportation, that would be the hardest part.”

The men also discussed trafficking cigarettes and the man alleged to be Ryan also offered to sell Agent 66 “straps,” street slang for handguns.

“I don’t know if you are interested in straps, but I can get you them too, kinda pricey though,” he said.

The meeting ended with the man alleged to be Ryan telling Agent 66 to communicate with him only through an encrypted messaging app used by the criminal network.

“I don’t mind meeting, but any question on anything, ask on the buzzer,” he said. “Any kind of grievance, just message me. I’m pretty easy to deal with.”

Ryan is on trial, accused of conspiring to sell cocaine, meth and fentanyl and possessing the proceeds of crime for the benefit or under the direction of the Wolf Pack Alliance.

He was one of 22 people arrested in early 2022 following a years-long RCMP investigation dubbed Project Divergent that netted the largest drug seizure in Manitoba at the time: 110 kilograms of cocaine, more than 40 kilograms of methamphetamine, three kilograms of fentanyl, 500 grams of MDMA (commonly known as ecstasy or molly), as well as 19 guns and more than $445,000 in cash.

Agent 66 is a longtime drug dealer now in witness protection after he agreed to infiltrate the trafficking network in return for a payday of up to $900,000, plus expenses.

Court head in the months preceding his meeting with the man alleged to be Ryan, Agent 66 negotiated two major drug deals with another reputed member of the criminal network, Denis Ivziku, a man he later learned was Ryan’s brother-in-law. It was Ivziku, court heard, who told Agent 66 that “Mr. Wolf” was Damion Ryan and helped arrange their meeting in Montreal.

In the weeks following the Montreal meeting, Agent 66, Ivziku and the man alleged to be Ryan arranged a deal over encrypted messaging that prosecutors allege culminated in the delivery of five kilos of cocaine to Agent 66 in Winnipeg on Jan. 7, 2022.

Ivziku has been charged in connection to the drug network but remains at large.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca