B.C.’s anti-gang police unit is celebrating a fourth guilty plea related to an investigation that began more than five years ago. Randall “Randy” James Morley King pleaded guilty on Sept. 14 to “several serious offences,” including trafficking cocaine for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with a criminal organization, the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit of B.C. said in a news release Tuesday. King also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic cocaine and two counts of trafficking cocaine, according to the CFSEU-BC. The charges stemmed from an investigation that began in January 2021 and was led by the unit’s Vancouver Island district. Police described the investigation as “complex,” and said it focused on members of the Hells Angels’ Nanaimo chapter. Roughly 3.5 kilograms of cocaine, $160,000 in cash, several firearms and “Hells Angels paraphernalia” were seized during the investigation, police said. King was one of six people charged in connection to the investigation in late 2023. Three others—Rhys Tyler Vernon Bolton, Shawna Lynne Leblanc and Peter Bruce Billie—have since pleaded guilty and received sentences “for offences related to drug trafficking and conspiracy to traffic,” the CFSEU-BC said in its release. Jeffery Pasanen—who police described as “a senior member of the Hells Angels” and an alleged organizer of the drug trafficking network—died earlier this year while court proceedings against him were ongoing. A fifth person, Jonathan Erin Clifford, is still subject to court proceedings, police said. King’s guilty plea is “a significant outcome for CFSEU-BC’s island district,” police said, noting that investigators and the Public Prosecution Service of Canada have spent years on this case. “Their commitment never wavered,” said Supt. Ryan Element, CFSEU-BC’s acting chief, in the release. “Organized crime investigations of this magnitude are complex, resource-intensive and can take years to move through the justice system. This guilty plea to trafficking cocaine for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with a criminal organization is an important outcome and demonstrates our commitment to targeting individuals operating at the highest levels of organized crime and holding them accountable.”
