THE OTHER CRIMINAL MASTERMIND WHO WALKED OUT OF B.C. PRISON
THE OTHER CRIMINAL MASTERMIND WHO WALKED OUT OF B.C. PRISON
Meet Omid Tahvili, the gangster who walked out of Port Coquitlam's "State of the Art" pretrial jail back in 2007
Hey Folks,
This is Crow Qu’appelle, a.k.a. Anton Bueckert. What you are about to read is my latest piece about crime and corruption in Canada. It was originally published over at my new blog over at antonbueckert.substack.com.
I encourage you to subscribe, especially if you are Canadian.
What you are about to read is about a 2007 escape of a high-profile prisoner from a B.C. prison called North Fraser Pretrial, which once housed Port Coquitlam serial killers Robert Pickton and Clifton Olson.
In total, there have been three escapes from this one jail, which I consider irrefutable evidence of both corruption and incompetence.
Correct me if I’m wrong!
THE OTHER CRIMINAL MASTERMIND WHO WALKED OUT OF B.C. PRISON
Meet Omid Tahvili, the gangster who walked out of Port Coquitlam's "State of the Art" pretrial jail back in 2007
by Anton Bueckert
You’ve probably never heard of Omid Tahvili, but in 2008 he was listed by Forbes alongside Osama Bin Laden and El Chapo as one of the world’s 10 most wanted criminals.
The Persian-Canadian criminal mastermind escaped from North Fraser Pretrial Correctional facility in Port Coquitlam in 2007.
That same prison was the site of another brazen escape years later, when the Hells Angels-connected gangster Rabih Alkhalil escaped from it in 2002.
Why is this prison so insecure?
WHO IS OMID TAHVILI?
Omid Tahvili is an Persian -Canadian gangster with roots in the Iranian underworld. His criminal activities span a wide spectrum, ranging from drug trafficking to fraud. In 2000, he was arrested for cocaine possession but was found not guilty. By 2003, the RCMP had identified him as the leader of a significant criminal network within the Iranian community in Canada.
One of his specialties was preying on elderly people by using telemarketing scams to defraud them, which apparently netted him approximately US$3 million.
According to Wikipedia:
A federal arrest warrant was issued for Tahvili on January 30, 2003 by the U.S. District Court, Central District of California, where he was charged with mail fraud, wire fraud, telemarketing fraud and aiding and abetting.
Tahvili was arrested in British Columbia on an extradition warrant and Tahvili was eventually ordered extradited to the United States of America by the British Columbia Supreme Court on May 4, 2007.
Tahvili had been represented by Canadian criminal and extradition lawyer Amandeep Singh, known for his representation of high profile and controversial international clientele such as billionaire banker fugitive Rakesh Saxena.
Tahvili appealed his extradition order to the British Columbia Court of Appeal and was awaiting his appeal when he absconded from the pre-trial facility where he was held.
Tahvili's criminal history is marked by brazen acts of violence, including the kidnapping and sexual assault of the brother-in-law of someone he suspected of stealing from him. He also reportedly had a contract killer on the payroll.
According to the Hood Chronicles YouTube channel:
He offered a million dollars to anyone who would help him break out of prison, and eventually did it for much less.
On November 15th, he changed into a janitor’s uniform, put bricks under his blanket, and went for a smoke break with the other workers.
From there, he passed through a hundred security cameras and convinced every member of the jail staff that he was a member of the cleaning staff just ending his shift. Omid Tahvili simply walked out the front door and was the first prisoner to ever break out of the detention centre, built six years earlier.
The state of the art detention centre cost the government more than 49 million dollars and was built to be one of the most secure detention centres in the country.
So when Omid escaped, it was immediately suspected that he had inside help, and this was confirmed by the security cameras.
The jail surveillance video showed Omid being escorted out through a series of locked doors by prison guard Edwin. Edwin was arrested the following day and was eventually charged with obstruction of justice and accepting a bribe.
Omid Tahvili had allegedly promised Edwin to meet him at a gas station where he was to paid back $50,000. Edwin went to the gas station but no one showed up.
Shortly after his arrest, the CBC reported that Ticne had been released on bail, and that the judge had ordered him not to be in contact in Tahvili.
Around the same time, another CBC article reported:
B.C. Corrections spokeswoman Lisa Lapointe said this was the first time in the history of B.C. Corrections that a guard has been charged with helping an inmate escape.
Purdy said that because of staffing levels, it was 20 hours after the escape before anyone noticed, and he believes if there had been more guards working, the escape may have been detected earlier.
The union is proposing an emergency pay upgrade and the hiring of more guards, and it wants the province to either reopen jails or build new ones.
Solicitor General John Les was on holidays and not available for comment, but Purdy said he believes the union's proposals are being considered seriously by the solicitor general's office.
In 2008, Ticne was sentenced to three years and three months jail time for aiding in his escape.
Tahvili subsequently received an 11-year sentence in absentia. He has never been found, and could be anywhere. Some speculate that he could be in his native country of Iran, which does not have an extradition treaty with Canada.
As far as I have been able to determine, no other members of prison staff faced disciplinary action. Nor has there been a public inquiry into potential corruption amongst B.C. Corrections staff.
In 2008, there was another escape from the prison. At the time, the CBC reported that:
Another prisoner has escaped from the high security North Fraser Pretrial Centre in Port Coquitlam, again by posing as someone else and walking out the front door.
Dean Sykes, 39, was serving a sentence for break and enter, but on Tuesday he appeared in court in Port Coquitlam posing as another inmate, Timothy Broadbent, 42.
The deception went undetected by authorities and after the court hearing Sykes was returned to the pretrial centre.
Still believing he was Broadbent, who was due to be released after the hearing, prison authorities allowed Sykes to walk out. He was last seen getting into a 1993 Plymouth Voyager van owned by Broadbent.
ACCORDING TO INSIDE SOURCES, CORRUPTION IS ENDEMIC AT NORTH FRASER PRETRIAL
Omid Tahvili’s escape from North Fraser Pretrial was repeated 15 years later when Hells Angels-connected gangster Rabih Alkhalil escaped in July 2022.
Although the Canadian media did report on Alkhalil’s escape at the time, it quickly disappeared from the headlines.
A search of the CBC website, for instance, shows that the CBC has not reported on Alkhalil’s prison break since October 2022.
WE HAVE INSIDE INFORMATION ABOUT ENDEMIC CORRUPTION AT NORTH FRASER PRETRIAL
The Canadian mainstream media has not reported on this case, but there is incredibly compelling inside information about endemic corruption at North Fraser Pretrial, courtesy of a YouTuber who runs a channel called LineScrew1.
Linescrew1 is not a journalist, and his YouTube channel is mostly dedicated to documenting his travels, but it just so happens that he is a former employee of North Fraser Pretrial.
Because he is now retired, he is willing to spill the beans about the prison’s culture of corruption, which he blames on its warden, Harbippan Cheema.
The information Linescrew1 provides is far too detailed to do justice to here, but if you want a highly informative breakdown of security protocols at this prison, I would encourage you to watch the following five videos.
His account is incredibly useful, as it is extremely rare to have such detailed inside information from someone who is clearly so knowledgeable. In such cases, many people are reluctant to speak publicly for fear of professional or personal repercussions.
If the Canadian media still practiced real journalism, every major news service would have scrambled to interview him, but I have not found a single article on the internet based on his report.
Please share this article far and wide in order to get this information out to a larger audience!
If the public does not hold B.C. Corrections to account, this corruption will continue.
In the past, North Fraser Pretrial has hosted some of Canada’s highest-profile prisoners, including Port Coquitlam serial killers Robert Pickton and Clifford Olson.
Do we really want such people to be able to walk out of jail?