B.C. judge sentences two Hells Angels associates to four and five years

Justice Anne MacKenzie sentenced David Revell, 44, to five years in prison and Richard Rempel, 25, to four years. The judge noted that neither had a criminal record and both had expressed remorse for their crimes.

MacKenzie noted that Rempel had committed a minor offence since his arrest in April 2005 but that, while deterrence and denunciation were primary considerations in sentencing, the two had shown "substantial potential for re-integration into society."

Still, the judge also said that their crimes were "brazen, arrogant offences motivated by greed.

"In the end the real victim is society," said MacKenzie, adding that some studies have suggested that 90 per cent of crime is linked to drugs and drug trafficking.

Rempel has already served 19 months in custody and will be given credit at double that, as prescribed by the law. That means his total remaining sentence is nine months.

Prosecutor Martha Devlin had asked the B.C. Supreme Court judge to sentence Rempel to eight years and Revell to 10 years for convictions on one count each of possession and one count of trafficking.

The Crown said the men, neither of whom is a drug addict, were motivated by profit and greed.

During the sentencing hearing, the Crown described the pair as being at the top of the drug dealing hierarchy.

In late March, when the two were convicted, an effort by the Crown to have a full-patch member of the Hells Angels convicted of working for a criminal organization failed when MacKenzie ruled she didn't have enough evidence to come to that finding.

MacKenzie ruled the Crown's case against David Giles was weak and she found him not guilty of a drug offence.

As a result, she said she couldn't find him guilty of the charge of committing an offence as part of a criminal organization.

The case had been seen as a possible landmark since it might have resulted in the Hells Angels being labelled in court as a criminal organization.

But Giles, 58, was found not guilty of possession of cocaine and not guilty of the count involving the commission of an offence for a criminal organization.

Rempel and Revell were found guilty of cocaine possession and guilty of cocaine trafficking, but not guilty of the criminal organization charge.

The case involved about nine kilograms of cocaine seized from three locations in Kelowna, B.C., where the Crown alleged the Vancouver-based East End Hells Angels had moved, calling themselves the K-Town Crew in order to establish a new chapter and take over the lucrative illegal drug trade in the Okanagan.

Devlin described the convicted men's role in the cocaine business as "a sophisticated and ongoing criminal enterprise" that involved "large amounts of cocaine."

"Our position is that they are at the top (of the drug-dealing hierarchy). These two are high-level, wholesale level cocaine dealers," she told the court.

She called Revell "clearly the leader" of the pair because "he directs Rempel."

The Crown estimated that the street prices of a kilogram of cocaine in Kelowna in 2005 - when the offence occurred - was $24,600 a kilogram.

Defence lawyer Doug Jevning, representing Revell, said his client was a successful businessman in Kelowna but his businesses have suffered greatly as a result of the charge and conviction.

He called for a sentence for Revell of between three and seven years and asked the judge to recommend to Corrections Canada that he serve his sentence at the minimum-security Ferndale Institution in the Fraser Valley.

He said Revell "can clearly re-integrate into society. He's well thought of by a lot of people, including his employees."

The verdicts followed a 10-month trial that ended in February.