Police do not believe the death of a man expected to plead guilty to drug trafficking charges is suspicious.
Allan Beatima Arcangel and Matthew Shaw were on the Vancouver provincial court docket for May 31 with impending guilty plea notations. The notations were listed next to charges each of commission of an offence for criminal organization, conspiracy to commit indictable offence and trafficking in a controlled substance.
Shaw is also facing another charge of possession for the purpose of trafficking.
Arcangel and Shaw were among eight men facing multiple drug-related charges.
Now, the Public Prosecution Service of Canada has confirmed Arcangel has died and that the charges against him were abated May 31.
“My understanding is that his death has no criminality associated to it,” Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit of B.C. spokesperson Sgt. Brenda Winpenny told Glacier Media
The offences are alleged to have taken place in Vancouver, Maple Ridge and Vernon.
The charges came in December after the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit of B.C. executed 12 search warrants at locations throughout Metro Vancouver and the Okanagan.
Police seized about $650,000 in Canadian currency and about two kilograms of cocaine, one kilogram of MDMA, one kilogram of fentanyl, 200 grams of ketamine, 10 kilograms marijuana and 16 kilograms of drug-cutting agent.
Also seized were three rifles, a shotgun, three prohibited magazines, ammunition, body armour, two vehicles and a cocaine press. Inside one residence, police seized a Hells Angels Motorcycle Club vest and various items of Hells Angels support clothing.
Other people charged
In addition to the counts faced by Arcangel and Shaw, Jonathan Louis Lutar is charged with being part of a criminal organization that is alleged to have included Arcangel, Shaw, David Oppenheim and others.
Lutar, Courtenay James Lafreneiere, Arcangel, Shaw, Oppenheim and others were also initially charged with trafficking at the direction or for the benefit of the organization made up of any three of Lutar, Arcangel, Shaw, Oppenheim and others.
Lutar, Lafreniere, Arcangel, Shaw and Oakley Lain Charest were also initially charged with conspiring together to traffic in controlled drugs.
Lutar, Lafreniere, Arcangel, Shaw and Charest were charged with trafficking in fentanyl, carfentanil and cocaine. Court documents show Lutar and Shaw are charged with possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.
Charest was charged with having a Ruger 45 calibre P90 gun with readily accessible ammunition. In connection to a July 5 incident in Vernon, he also allegedly possessed a Walther P38 handgun and five firearms magazines without a licence. He was charged with allegedly possessing the guns while prohibited from doing so.
Two other men alleged to be connected and facing narcotics trafficking-related charges have been moving toward trial.
Lukas Sam Fox Tassone is charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking while Roman Gabriel Fox Tassone faces two counts of the same charge. All three offences are alleged to have occurred in Richmond.
