Monday, September 08, 2008
Reporter
Omid Tahvili, the convicted drug dealer who escaped from the North Fraser Pretrial Centre in November with the aid of a guard, was killed last week after he was shot five times in the head, chest, arm and legs. The tipster said he is storing the body in a fridge and that he would hold onto it until the RCMP offer him a suitable reward. "I can't keep the body around no more longer, because the body stinks right now," the caller told the North Shore News."If they don't make that deal with me, I'm just going to burn the body and get rid of it."He would not reveal how he came to be in possession of the corpse, or any information about who shot Tahvili.
Coquitlam RCMP Cpl. Scott Baker confirmed that the tipster had called him twice and offered to return the body in return for a large payment. Police are taking the call seriously, but Baker said there isn't any proof that Tahvili is either dead or alive. He said the caller refused to send RCMP pictures of the body, nor would he give his name or contact information.Although caller ID showed a Toronto number, Baker said that police have not been able to trace it, and they can't be sure that the tipster is actually in Ontario. The caller told the North Shore News that he was "somewhere back east."The caller accurately described Tahvili's tattoos, but police said those descriptions have been widely circulated in the public.
"He could very well know Tahvili, and Tahvili could be in on the whole thing," Baker said. "It sounds pretty hokey.... It sure is possible, but is it likely? I don't know."In August, Crown prosecutor Wendy Dawson revealed in court during the sentencing hearing of former jail guard Edwin Ticne, who helped Tahvili escape in return for $50,000, that the gangster had called Coquitlam RCMP to say he was in Toronto and wanted to make a deal for his return to B.C. Before being sentenced in absentia in January, Tahvili phoned his lawyer and promised to turn himself in if the judge let him off with time served. But that deal was refused, and Tahvili was ordered to serve six more years in jail for the kidnapping and torture of a Surrey man in 2005.The judge ruled that Tahvili was the mastermind behind the abduction plot, in which the victim was kidnapped at gunpoint, blindfolded, assaulted and taken to a secret location, which police believed was Tahvili's business, Platinum Touch in Vancouver. During that sentencing, the court heard that Tahvili and his business shipped at least $654,000 in drug money during a one-month period when they were under police surveillance
Coquitlam RCMP Cpl. Scott Baker confirmed that the tipster had called him twice and offered to return the body in return for a large payment. Police are taking the call seriously, but Baker said there isn't any proof that Tahvili is either dead or alive. He said the caller refused to send RCMP pictures of the body, nor would he give his name or contact information.Although caller ID showed a Toronto number, Baker said that police have not been able to trace it, and they can't be sure that the tipster is actually in Ontario. The caller told the North Shore News that he was "somewhere back east."The caller accurately described Tahvili's tattoos, but police said those descriptions have been widely circulated in the public.
"He could very well know Tahvili, and Tahvili could be in on the whole thing," Baker said. "It sounds pretty hokey.... It sure is possible, but is it likely? I don't know."In August, Crown prosecutor Wendy Dawson revealed in court during the sentencing hearing of former jail guard Edwin Ticne, who helped Tahvili escape in return for $50,000, that the gangster had called Coquitlam RCMP to say he was in Toronto and wanted to make a deal for his return to B.C. Before being sentenced in absentia in January, Tahvili phoned his lawyer and promised to turn himself in if the judge let him off with time served. But that deal was refused, and Tahvili was ordered to serve six more years in jail for the kidnapping and torture of a Surrey man in 2005.The judge ruled that Tahvili was the mastermind behind the abduction plot, in which the victim was kidnapped at gunpoint, blindfolded, assaulted and taken to a secret location, which police believed was Tahvili's business, Platinum Touch in Vancouver. During that sentencing, the court heard that Tahvili and his business shipped at least $654,000 in drug money during a one-month period when they were under police surveillance
Posted in: Toronto
