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Man targeted in Kelowna shooting sentenced overseas to life in prison

A B.C. gangster who was a target of a Kelowna shooting has been sentenced to life in prison.
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A B.C. gangster who was a target of a high profile Kelowna shooting has been sentenced to life in prison.

Independent Soldier James Clayton Riach along with Ali Memar Mortazavi Shirazi were given a life sentence for possession of illegal drugs Wednesday in Manilla, reports the Manilla Bulletin.

On Jan. 7, 2014, the National Bureau of Investigation- Anti-Organized Crimes Division received information that Riach was setting up a network to distribute illegal drugs in the country, according to an 11-page decision issued Feb. 28 by Acting Presiding Judge Selma Palacio Alcaras, reads the story.

After receiving the information, the NBI conducted a surveillance in the afternoon of two apartments where the Canadians were believed to reside.

RELATED: JAMES RIACH HUNTED FOR ROLE IN MURDER

Police then arrested Riach and Shirazi a week later after a large quantity of drugs was discovered inside Gramecy Residences in Barangay Poblacion, Makati.

The incident took place just a few years after the 2011 murder of Red Scorpians gang member Jonathan Bacon.

During the trial, the court heard that Riach was one of two targets of the shooting. He’d been “hunted” for his alleged role in the murder of Gurmit Dhak, of the the Dhak Group, a B.C. Supreme Court trial judge had been told.

Dhak had been gunned down by other rivals in a Metrotown parking lot in 2010 and his younger brother Sukh Dhak came to the understanding that Larry Amero and Riach were involved.

A witness in the trial testified he knew Riach was an Independent Soldier from the Vancouver area and Amero was a full patch Hells Angel. Sukh Dhak’s associates were to look for them.

Bacon, Amero and Riach were in a Porsche Cayenne during the August 2011 shooting, along with Leah Hadden-Watts and Lyndsey Black. Bacon was the only one who died. Amero was shot in the face, wrist and chest, Hadden-Watts was shot in the neck and rendered a paraplegic, Black was shot through both upper legs. Riach escaped without injury.

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