Opinion
Barry Artiste, Now Public Contributor

Perisan Gangster Omid Tahvili is the subject of a World Wide manhunt after escaping from North Fraser Pretrial Centre in Port Coquitlam, touted to be one of B.C.'s most high-tech, secure prisons.

I guess it was just not secure for Omid Tahvili who on Friday seemed to just walk out the door, no gun fire, no hostage taking, no fight at all. This may make some of us involved in criminal justice wonder who makes these claims of "Most Secure Prisons" ? Much like everything else in British Columbia in regards to Gangs and Violence. I am sure there will be another inane Government appointed "multijurisdictional steering committee rhetoric, political crime busting Yadda, Yadda, blah, blah (Let's placate the public once more with idiotic baffle gab) Persian Gang Prison escapee Task force" with a title so friggin long and unintelligeable that will require two or three business cards just to print the new "Task Farce" name on it. Of course all at the Public Taxpayers expense.

News you won't find in the Vancopuver Sun is the description of Omid Tahvilli who is 5 foot-9inches, 174 pounds -- has a large Celtic cross on his back and
the faces of his children tattooed on his upper arms, along with other
body art. He has a small surgical scar on his stomach.



My Final Thought
Someone needs to be fired, as these type of fiascos are the result of I am a thinkin one Dairy Farmer Solitictor General John Les.

One would think something this big in Canada, especially in Vancouver,
would feature this gangsters face to be featured on the Vancouver Sun
newspaper? Guess what? It isn't! This is not the first time "Breaking
news" in our city does not come with a photo on our Province's largest
newspaper. One does not need to really wonder why news organizations
such as Now Public can consistentantly beat the pants off mainstream
media when it's Citizen Journalilsts can easily find a gangsters mug online to
go with their story and our commentary when when laziness percieved at
the Vancouver Sun has resulted in layoffs of their own staff. Do you agree?




Two separate investigations were underway Friday to determine whether a notorious gangster had inside help in executing the first escape from the maximum-security North Fraser Pretrial Centre.

Closed-circuit video and audio tapes from inside the Port Coquitlam jail are already painting a picture for the RCMP and the B.C. Corrections Branch as to how convicted kidnapper Omid Tahvili slipped away some time Thursday evening.

"This is the first escape from this centre, so we are obviously seriously concerned about how this could have happened," B.C. Corrections spokeswoman Lisa LaPointe said.

The North Fraser Pretrial Centre in Port Coquitlam is one of B.C.'s most high-tech, secure prisons.


"We are gathering all the information that we can provide to assist the investigation, all our phone tapes, videotapes, interviews with inmates. And RCMP will be conducting interviews at the centre. So there are two parallel investigations."

Asked if an employee could have been involved, LaPointe said: "We don't discount anything."

A worldwide hunt is now on for Tahvili, a wealthy kingpin in Persian organized crime who owned businesses and trafficked drugs before being convicted last month on several serious charges in B.C. Supreme Court.

The 37-year-old would likely have faced a lengthy prison term at his sentencing next month for kidnapping, use of an imitation firearm, assault, sexual assault and threatening in a brutal 2005 abduction and torture related to missing drug money.

Tahvili's estranged wife Pamela Seema Pal, who operates Platinum Touch Auto Detailing in Vancouver, told The Vancouver Sun on Friday she had been contacted by police but had no idea where her husband is.

"We were not together, really. We haven't been together for a while," Pal said. "I haven't even talked to him about anything."

She would not say exactly when Tahvili last called the $750,000 North Vancouver home listed only in her name.

"Our conversations were very brief. He only calls to talk to the kids basically," she said of their two children, whose portraits are tattooed on their dad's arms.

Coquitlam RCMP Cpl. Tony Farahbakhchian said corrections staff called police about 8:30 p.m. Thursday to say Tahvili was missing after a head-count.

He said police believe Tahvili would have been attempting to leave the country because of his convictions here. But he is also wanted in the U.S. in a massive telemarketing fraud case.

"Even with a small amount of time, someone can get pretty far, especially if they have access to money," Farahbakhchian said.

"We are trying to figure out how this individual escaped from a maximum security penitentiary."

Police don't believe the public should fear Tahvili.

"Mr. Tahvili's history of violence has been targeted towards other criminals and gang associates. We do not feel the ... public is at risk," Farahbakhchian said.

He wouldn't say if corrections staff were being investigated as possible accomplices.

LaPointe said head counts are done of inmates about every four hours.

"Management at the centre has reviewed tapes and listened to tapes and spoken with inmates. So I think they have some sense of how it happened and they have provided RCMP with all of the information they are gathering," LaPointe said.

Tahvili had been housed at North Fraser since he was arrested in the summer of 2005 in the kidnapping case. The Iranian immigrant arrived in Canada in 1994 and built up a small criminal empire, according to police and immigration documents obtained earlier by The Sun.

Tahvili is described as having black hair and brown eyes, with a medium build and several distinctive tattoos, including a Celtic cross on his upper back, a tribal shoulder tattoo on his right shoulder, and a child's face on each upper arm.

During his trial, police pointed to Tahvili as the boss of a national organized-crime group, describing him at one point as "a ringleader, kingpin, the top dog of laundering money."

The kidnap victim was grabbed because Tahvili believed $350,000 in drug money had been stolen by the man's relative. The victim was blindfolded and taken to a location where he was stripped, humiliated and brutally interrogated.

Police think the site was Platinum Touch -- the business on West Fifth in Vancouver still listed as being owned by Tahvili's wife, Pamela Pal, according to the corporate registry.

Pal is also listed as the lease-holder for a BMW and a Dodge Viper -- two cars offered for rent through Platinum's luxury-vehicle business in Richmond.

Several of Tahvili's associates have also faced charges, though his brother-in-law Royhit Alvin Pal was acquitted in the same kidnapping plot. Another brother-in-law, Reginald Pal, extradited to the U.S. last May in the telemarketing fraud case.

Another associate, Syamac Gafary was gunned down in Kitsilano last February.

kbolan@png.canwest.com







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"A drowning man is not troubled by rain" Persian Proverb


"You should not be afraid of the ideology but of the determination and will of the men behind it"

WAIT a sec, there's an Iranian mafia outside of Iran?.................... kkkools!

But seriously, does anyone have more info on this group cause i'm hearing alot about their involvment in canadian news.

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"A drowning man is not troubled by rain" Persian Proverb


"You should not be afraid of the ideology but of the determination and will of the men behind it"

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Tahvili, 37, recently called the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and said he was in Toronto. Caller ID also showed he was calling from a Toronto number, but police remain skeptical about Tahvili being in Canada. Police believe he fled to his native Iran, which does not have an extradition treaty with Canada.



Crown prosecutor Wendy Dawson told a court Friday about Tahvili's phone call to the Coquitlam RMCP barracks and his offer to negotiate his return. But she and the RCMP declined to provide details of the call.



Tahvili escaped from British Columbia's maximum-security facility November 15, 2007, with the help of Edwin Ticne, 35, who was a prison guard at the time. Tahvili was facing sentencing after being found guilty of kidnaping, sexual assault, possession of an imitation firearm, assault causing bodily harm, uttering a threat and proceeds-of-crime charges. The court found Tahvili was the "directing mind" of a criminal organization based in Canada. But after his escape, he could face additional charges.



He is also facing extradition to the United States on charges of running what is believe to be a $3-million telemarketing scam that victimized seniors.



Ticne, the former jail guard who helped Tahvili escape, was arrested the following day; he pleaded guilty last year to accepting a bribe in exchange for helping Tahvili escape. A jail surveillance video showed Tahvili, wearing a janitor's uniform, being led by Ticne through a series of locked doors at night and exiting through the front door.



The Iranian gangster allegedly promised Ticne to meet him at a gas station and pay him $50,000. Ticne went to the gas station but no one showed up. Ticne was sentenced last Friday to 39 months in prison.



Tahvili's escape was the first from the North Fraser Pretrial Center, which houses prisoners awaiting trial or in custody on immigration warrants. But last week, there was another escape when Dean Douglas Sykes, 39, swapped identification with a prisoner serving time on weekends, and was mistakenly released. He was caught August 8.




About Iran Times: The Iran Times is an independent newspaper with no affiliation with any political party or faction The Iran Times corporation was founded in Washington D.C. in 1970, in accordance with U.S. federal and local regulations: www.iran-times.com



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"A drowning man is not troubled by rain" Persian Proverb


"You should not be afraid of the ideology but of the determination and will of the men behind it"