The Notorious Bacon Brothers

by Jerry Langton

  Fraser was charged with murder and, to the dismay of many, granted bail. He fled and eventually turned himself in to Burnaby RCMP in October 2010.

  On September 11, 2009, a motion came through the B.C. courts that raised many eyebrows. Jamie Bacon sued Debbie Hawboldt, the warden of Surrey Pretrial Services Centre. In it, he claimed he was mistreated by having his mail, telephone and visitation access unfairly limited. He also claimed that he was held in solitary confinement without justification.

  After his arrest, Jamie was given a standard mental-health screening, which indicated he was not a risk to harm himself or other inmates. Despite that, he was taken to a segregation wing and put in a small, windowless cell, in which he was kept 23 hours per day, with the other hour allowing him into another small room. Then, his petition said:

  He was subsequently moved to another cell (210) which he said was filthy and smeared with ‘blood, feces and mucus.' The bed was a concrete slab with a vinyl-covered foam mat. He had one sheet and a thin blanket, but was not allowed a pillow. He said that there was no change of bedding in the five weeks he was there. The petitioner said that he was not allowed a pen until May 4, 2009. He said the lights in his cell were on 24 hours per day. He said that they could be dimmed to some degree at night, but that happened only at the discretion of the guards. Cell 210 had a video camera mounted in a corner above the door. It was positioned such that the petitioner could be monitored while using the toilet in his cell. When he attempted to cover the lens, he was advised he could not do so and threatened with an unspecified disciplinary infraction.

  He complained to authorities at the time and was told that the video camera had nothing to do with him or what he had done, but was simply because the facility wanted to “make best use of available cells.”

  The hour he had outside that cell, he said, was the only time he was allowed to shower or make contact with counsel. He was not allowed to call anyone else and was denied nail clippers, use of the laundry and the remand center's gym. Bacon said he was also denied his right to vote in the federal election.

  His petition also said he was subsequently moved to cell 227, a medical isolation unit, because 210 was needed for co-defendant Cody Haevischer, who was being sent there for disciplinary reasons. Bacon noted that he, having done nothing to merit it, was already being held in the cell used to punish other inmates.

  Cell 227, he stated, was a marked improvement (he had better shower access, wasn't—as far as he knew—under video surveillance and had some time in common areas). But it was still not up to the legal standards Corrections Canada is supposed to enforce, and when amenities like a television and a microwave were repaired (after his complaints, he said), they were quickly destroyed again by “mentally ill” inmates.

  More than a year later, his claims were upheld, and he was granted damages.

  It was the B.C. gangs' reliance on cocaine supplies from Mexico—where a massive military crackdown on the drug cartels had turned much of the country into a war zone—that gave law enforcement the upper hand.

  Beginning on January 19, 2009, the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit (CFSEU), started to receive calls from a man known as GL, offering to become an informant on high-profile drug cases.

  A Canadian, GL pled guilty in California to a charge of conspiracy to traffic cocaine from Mexico. That led to a light sentence by American standards—46 months. After 30 months, he was transferred to a Canadian prison, at which he served a little more than two months before he was granted full parole.

  Back on the street, he made a point of running into an old friend from a truck-driving job he had in the 1980s, Wayne Scott. GL was well aware that Scott's daughter Carly was Jarrod Bacon's girlfriend and that the two had a toddler together. He spoke with Scott about getting back into the drug trade and asked if he could arrange a meeting with him and Jarrod specifically to discuss trafficking. “You and the kid have a lot in common,” Scott said to him. “You should get together.”

  Scott set up a meeting with GL and Jarrod at his own house in Abbotsford in late February 2009. Over a kitchen table, they spoke about the shortage of cocaine in the Lower Mainland and how the quality had gone way downhill. GL then told Jarrod that he could get his hands on a great deal of high-quality cocaine from friends in Mexico. But, he maintained, they would not be interested in any small-time deals. The minimum order would be at least 100 kilos. Jarrod said he was very interested and wanted to know what sort of time frame he would be looking at. GL assured him that he could complete such a deal in two to three months. Jarrod said that he was impressed and would like to discuss the matter further at a later date. Although Scott split his time during the meeting between the house's kitchen and living room, he did not participate in the discussion about the deal.

  A couple of days later, they met again in Scott's kitchen. Jarrod said he had assembled a team of backers. One he identified as a wealthy Indian Canadian berry farmer who lived on 0 Avenue. That one backer alone, he said, was prepared to float $3 million in cash. Then Jarrod told GL that he wanted to start with 10 kilos per week, and if it was high enough quality, he would increase the order to 30 or even 40 kilos per week.

  The following day, GL left for a six-week contract position as a camp manager for a diamond mine in a remote part of northern B.C. Without either cell or landline service, GL stayed in contact with Scott via satellite phone.

  The day after GL returned to Abbotsford, May 2, 2009, he met Scott at a local restaurant for breakfast. Scott told him that Jarrod had been awaiting his return and that his backers were eager to get the ball rolling but needed a taste test before they'd invest any real money. GL told him that was entirely possible and that he would need a deposit of $3,000 per kilogram they ordered.

  With Jarrod and Scott (and their backers) well into the plan, GL approached police again. He signed a contract to become an agent source and agreed to allow police to record any and all conversations between him and Jarrod or Scott. They then rented a warehouse on his behalf to store his truck and the propane canisters the cocaine would be transported in.

  GL then told Scott he was flying to Mexico in June 2009 and that he would bring back a five-kilo sample. He also told him to make sure that Jarrod was aware of what was going on. Acting now under police direction, GL didn't actually go to Mexico, and the police, who had some understandable trust issues as far as he was concerned, refused to give him five kilos of cocaine to use as a sample.

  But he soldiered on. At the end of July 2009, police recorded GL arranging meetings with Scott with the purpose of getting him or Jarrod to visit the warehouse to see how his operation worked. When asked about the sample, he said that it was still sealed in a propane canister and that if the backers wanted it, they would have to come and get it. The official transcript shows that GL told Scott that he didn't want to risk being caught with it in his truck:

  GL: I am not fuckin' driving around with the thing. I am not asking you to drive around with the fuckin' thing. These guys are gonna have to clean themselves, however they fuckin' do it. I don't care if they drive around for six fuckin' hours and then we'll all get together and have a little show and tell and after I give them the show and tell and show them all my vehicles, explain the deal, explain how it's gonna go down, what it's gonna cost to get into this thing. If they're still interested, then I'll open it up for 'em. They can take their fuckin' sample and pss-ee-you.

  Scott: Yeah.

  GL: It's too serious, because I know when we were sittin' in here, he says, okay. This is when we were—before.

  Scott: Yeah.

  GL: He says, yeah. Well, you know what? I'm ... I'm gonna get Wayne to come down and get it, and do this, and do this, and do this. You know what? There ain't enough money in it to be the fuckin' taxi for this shit. You're gonna get looked after. You're gonna get looked after 'cause I ... I ... I ground some good numbers down there. You're gonna get looked after. Actually, I'm probably gonna tell him I'm gonna look after you 'cause t
his way, if this asshole gets in trouble, I'll still look after you because he'll have the fuckin' Hindus behind him to finish off the deal and it'll be between him and the Hindus ...

  After that, GL made repeated calls in hopes of arranging a meeting at the warehouse, stressing that he wanted Jarrod and “the fucking Hindus” to come. Scott stalled:

  See, I think like Jarrod said and I ... I ... I haven't seen him there for quite a while since Carly moved out, he used to come to the house [indiscernible]. He's a big fucking Hindu.

  He also assured GL in the same conversation that he'd talk to Jarrod. Scott said he'd let Jarrod know, but that he might have a hard time getting together with him because he had “so much heat on him.”

  After a few abortive attempts, GL arranged a meeting between Jarrod, Scott and himself at Scott's house. Scott pointed out that Carly had been the avenue through which he spoke with Jarrod.

  In Scott's kitchen, at about 2:30 p.m. on August 8, 2009, Jarrod greeted GL and pulled a large green erasable note board out of a bag, telling him “this is how we do it.” It's an old but effective trick, one pioneered by former Hells Angels national president Walter Stadnick. If a house is bugged, traffickers write their conversations on the board and then quickly erase them. That way, there's no hard evidence because no verbal communication is exchanged. And since the board is constantly erased, nothing written on it can ever be recovered. Many in law enforcement are aware of the practice and take measures against it because it is so crudely effective. But the Crown made a crucial mistake with Jarrod. One of the conditions of his bail (Jarrod was facing weapons charges and due for a court date in December) was that he was not allowed to own a “whiteboard,” which is what all erasable note boards are commonly called because they are usually white. Jarrod cleverly circumvented that restriction by simply buying a green one.

  But unlike Stadnick, he sometimes deviated from the discipline required to communicate solely by the board. Police were able to record snippets of their conversation. When asked if the buyer would be happy with decent enough quality cocaine that it could make excellent crack, Jarrod said, “He'll just be happy, like ... he'd be jumping up and down.” GL took that to understand he'd be celebrating. He then asked Jarrod if the buyer could come up with the deposit he had asked for. Jarrod answered, “I'm pretty sure I can convince him.” And when GL asked him if his curfew or police surveillance would pose any problems, Jarrod told him, “Once I know they're all good, it'll be easy each time ... less than a few hours. You know we have cars here and we ... it's like we have a truck [inaudible] special compartment [indiscernible] so I'm not like just gonna throw them over my shoulder and drive them some place. It's gonna be a lot smarter than that.”

  Jarrod then told GL his foolproof methods for testing cocaine and offered $30,000 per kilo, higher than the $27,000 GL had expected. GL found that suspicious. Jarrod also pointed out that since he was on $175,000 bail, he wanted to keep the number of people who knew about the deal as small and discreet as possible. He said he wanted knowledge of the transaction limited to himself, GL, Scott and Carly. He finished the conversation by telling GL he had $3 million on hand and could come up with $2 million more, if necessary.

  GL called Scott a couple of times and arranged a meeting at a Tim Hortons on August 10, 2009. Scott, who spoke freely at the meeting, said Jarrod “felt better after the meeting with GL.” Then he asked GL if Jarrod told him what his commission would be. GL told him that Jarrod would pay him $30,000 per kilo and $5,000 per kilo to Scott for arranging the deal.

  Then they dealt with logistics. When Scott asked where the money drop should take place, GL suggested Scott's house. “While I'm going to assume that he's going to leave it and I'll just pick it up at your house,” he told him. “What you don't want is you don't want money and dope in the same place. I'll tell you what happens then—guns come out.” Scott agreed that his house was ideal, saying his basement was full of empty boxes and that there was plenty of room to “hide a frigging duffel bag of fucking cash.”

  After that meeting, GL was anxious to speak to Jarrod, but Scott had some difficulty getting an answer from him, even though he had spoken directly with Carly and given her a note to give to Jarrod. Finally, at 2:17 p.m. on August 13, 2009, Scott called GL and told him to meet with him and Jarrod at his house at 5:00 p.m. With police watching, GL arrived at Scott's house at 5:08 p.m., and Jarrod—driven by an unidentified friend who did not leave the vehicle—showed up at 5:15 p.m., while Scott got there three minutes later.

  Police saw the three men talking in Scott's garage. Jarrod did not bring his green board this time but, as a precaution, made both men deposit their cellphones with his in the garage. But GL was wearing a wire and recorded the conversation as they discussed details of the exchange:

  Jarrod: Yeah, so I talked to, um, like I said, um, I'm on bail so I can't do it myself.

  GL: Oh, like I know your hands are tied, buddy.

  Jarrod: Yeah, so I talked to, um, he's a broker. This is what he does for a living.

  GL: Yeah.

  Jarrod: And what he does is he knows every guy in the game, and they all go to him to get the shit, right? So basically, my friend can get rid of all of 'em no problem. He can dump them no problem. Um, like I said, I'm not even going to profit from this, I'm just going to give, uh, the Wayne his cut and make sure maybe ...

  GL: Get some love down the road for whatever, yeah.

  Jarrod: He gets some shit and whatever, maybe you know, like I said. Once I'm off my bail, I can go near it, but, but right now, like I can't even go near it. But I have a friend that's no heat, no nothing. So basically he wants a hundred. And he says he can, he can do the deposit, he can give you the money, no problem. He says he wants to do it in tens. Ten at a time. So he'll leave you 30,000 deposit and then, um, within, you know, five, six hours he's gonna go get it and bring your money back.

  GL: And I can bring it here and ...

  Jarrod: Yeah.

  GL: Boom, boom, and away we go.

  Jarrod: And he wants to do it in tens.

  GL: That's fine.

  Jarrod: So in that way, he says it's just less money to deal with.

  GL: Well, in 10 days and it's done.

  Jarrod: And he said basically, yeah. Boom, boom, boom, he can do it 10 in every day. He said, in fact, like he can do this all the time. He knows every major guy around and they all come to him. So basically, my friend's like fucking like hugging me, he's so happy with me.

  They then discussed the dearth of high-quality drugs in the area and moved on to prices. When Jarrod complained about paying a deposit up front before the drugs had even arrived, GL began to explain how complicated his process was. Jarrod interrupted him, saying: “We're not interested in how you do because the more you tell me, the more I get worried that this is a setup.” He then further distanced himself from the deal, claiming that he wasn't the dealer, just “an enforcer.”

  But he did want to know how things would work once the big shipment of drugs had arrived from Mexico. As they worked out the details, Jarrod told GL, “Come by, I'll get a kid to come by, I'll leave the thirty grand with Wayne, you get my kid to bring the shit, I'll have the money dropped off. Boom, that's it.” He closed the meeting by making sure everyone was on the same page and told GL that he had faith he was not part of a “setup” because he had used Scott, whom he trusted, as a middleman. At 5:28 p.m., Jarrod left in the same truck he came in.

  Two weeks later, GL phoned Scott to make sure everything was still going as planned. They spoke in code, referring to the drugs as “pickup trucks” and the amounts as “miles.” Scott complained that he had an argument with Carly. Apparently, she thought it was her deal and that the commission should go to her, not her dad. GL laughed and came up with a solution—Jarrod should pay him the entire amount, and then GL would kick the commission back to Scott.

  After a few more calls in which Scott asked GL to run down the prices, amounts and commissions again, on Aug
ust 26, 2009, GL told Scott that the drugs had arrived, and that he had 72 kilos in the warehouse. After some delays because Scott had to get his motorcycle serviced and Jarrod had decided to go to the PNE, they agreed to meet in a cemetery, at which GL aired his worries about Bacon's sincerity. Because Bacon had not shown him any money and was hoping to get $300,000 worth of coke basically on spec, GL told Scott he would be just as happy to find another buyer. He recorded the following conversation:

  GL: You know what, and, and I actually almost got a feelin' this is over his fuckin' head, just the whole concept of—you know what, we got a deal goin', I have fuckin' done 110 percent of what I'm gonna do, he hasn't shown me 10 fuckin' cents and he wants 300,000 dollars worth of credit in 20 minutes for two hours, you know, so I'm just about deck. I'm ready to take a fuckin' walk, you know, this all too good to be true thing, well, you know what, it ain't that good, buddy, because it's fuckin' time to show up with some fuckin' cash and and show up when you're supposed to show up, where you're supposed to show up ...

  Scott: Yeah.

  GL: ... But anyways, what are his concerns I'm done a ... so I'm ...

  Scott: No, no concerns.

  GL: Yeah.

  Scott: No, my concerns is wha ... okay, like, is, ah, I mean, I'm all new to this, this is something that I've never done before.

  GL: I've done it three times today I got ...

  Scott: 'kay so ...

  GL: ... it pretty much down ...

  Scott: ... So he, if he brings me 30 grand, what's, what's the process after that?

  GL: Okay, well ah, he'll get 10 ...

  Scott: ... Well, he's supposed to, he's supposed to give me 30 grand, like, he's bringin' that money, like he's [indiscernible].

  GL: Yeah. Then come meet me at the warehouse, bring a duffel bag, somethin' ...

  Scott: Yeah.

  GL: ... and fuckin' wheel ya inside, have, we'll pick 10 out, he, he does whatever the fuck he wants with them, he checks them out, I ain't gonna fuckin' spend his money, his money ain't gonna leave the warehouse, but I'm not deliverin' 10 when I got 70 or 80 there, I got a little bit too much on my plate and that's not ...