A week and I'm like, whoa, well, I'm not surprised, you know, So it it it has seen like like the the physical effects it has like I remember one time my friend Kevin, who was a pretty bad coke addict. I went and visited him once. I because he wasn't answering his phone and he he used to live with his mother, believe it or not. But his mom had a nursery and she had kind of like a coach house that was in the nursery and he lived in there and I knock on the thing and go, OK, come on in.
And the whole place is just like a disgusting pigsty. He hasn't left. He hadn't hadn't left the his apartment for over a week. I go in his bedroom and I'm not kidding, David, it was so disgusting. He had a bathroom across the hall. He was so paranoid, like, so paranoid about leaving his room. He was peeing in containers, like milk containers, cups and stuff. I'm like, what's that I'm like? And it stunk so bad. So I've seen like the the, the
behavior that it caused. And I'm like, say you have a bathroom And he lived by himself. He lived by himself. He was so like, wigged out, he couldn't leave his room. That's called cocaine psychosis. Oh, definitely. And then one time he told me that he was so paranoid that someone was going to break in his house. I I didn't know. I didn't know where he got it. I didn't ask. He was so paranoid. He was kneeling at the mail slot because at his door had like a mail slot to push the mail
through. And he was kneeling at the mail slot looking through the mail horn, and he had a gun and he was paranoid that someone was coming to a raid. I'm like, well, who do you think? I don't know somebody. Yeah, somebody. And he actually had knee. He he hurt. He actually had knee issues after that. Yeah, you know, because they'd be up for so many hours, no
sleep, and that's. And another thing with cocaine, where they make that in the jungle, you know, once you see a lot of people picking at their skin, right? Yeah. There's a there's a little parasite in the jungle that's so small that gets into the drug that that the ether and all that doesn't kill it. And it gets in. Yeah. Oh yeah. I've seen it. It gets into the drug and yes, so when people inject it and even yes. It gets into their bloodstream,
into their veins. That's why you see them picking, because they see these little bugs in their mouth. And yeah, I heard about that in in the. Yeah, because given like everyone like Kevin, he'd always be scratching himself. He'd make me feel itchy, you know what I mean? Like he'd make me feel because he's scratching and I'm like, dude, go have a shower. Like you're you're wig, you know, you're you're making me uncomfortable. You're making me itchy.
Yeah, you know, that's what I'm saying. And like and like the reason I bring this up, because he's brought up something interesting. Because in the 80s, you, Miami Vice Scarface guy, doing coke with all these attractive women and getting the hookers on the sex workers on television. They're always gorgeous. And they do, they did do a really great job of glamorizing it, right, Glamorizing it, the money.
And somehow it's cool. And again with the like the stock broker guys that did it, they always thought it was like a cool status thing. You know, I remember there was this, this is hilarious, there was this Courier company downtown Vancouver. When I excited when I worked in
the stock industry. I won't say the name of the company in case it's all around, but this Courier company, they would, they would call them and this guy would come in with the uniform, you know and had this Manila you know, business type envelope and it was cocaine in it And and yeah, I've seen it like even in the in the office environment this is like kind of kind of early 2000s, early 2000s, late 90s.
And you know these men, they're supposed to be, you know these gentlemen in suits and drive nice cars and stuff. I've seen them just go downhill. You know, they they make some big money on the stock market. Next thing you know, they divorced their wife of 30 years. Their their escort is now their
girlfriend. You know, of course, 'cause they're paying through the nose, come in the office at 7:00 in the morning, the guy's wearing the same suit that he has been all week, and he's chopping a line on the desk, right? And he just looks horrible, like he looks like he looks like his head's gonna explode. And you know that that really grossed me out. And of course that, you know, I didn't. I, I, I quit that industry, but
for many reasons. But that was one of the main ones because of the excessive boozing, the drugs and they always acted like it was just the most awesome thing in the world. And then, like, you know, and then seeing their lives ruined, almost none of them kept their money, none of them kept their families or probably their families hate them. And lot of them are probably dead now of heart attacks and stuff.
Because you know, when you're stimulating, you've been up for, you know, when you're in your 40s or 50s and you might have an underlying heart condition and you're just blasting yourself with a pretty powerful stimulant, you're you're taking a massive toll on your health and stuff. So I've seen a lot of people's health deteriorate. Did you? I knew a guy.
I know you. If you know him, I don't want to say his name because, you know, again, I want to say that, but he was Mr. Canada at one point and he was a shorter guy. He was a bodybuilder. He had a great build, he was a, he was a very talented bodybuilder and he probably could have went pro. But he, he got busted I think for a steroid bust, 'cause he was working at the Vancouver
airport. And then when he came out of jail, he got really heavy into the, you know, the blow and stuff and you know, get he he. So he went from being this high caliber, you know, world class bodybuilder, like doing like these really like international contests to living on Hastings. Street. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And also, yeah, you got, you got all kinds of athletes, professional athletes, you know, like Gotti, who, who, who was?
Who is Tat? Sorry Tonti, who was murdered in in the United States. Here's a world champion multimillionaire. But he couldn't give up to the his, his lifestyle. You know, as a as a drug, as a drug dealer and a gangster and hearing it, making millions of such a professional fighter and he ends up getting assassinated. Was that the one where you got, was that the guy that got strangled and he actually thought maybe it was his wife or girlfriend or ex-girlfriend killed him?
That was John. That was Gotti. But he was not involved in drugs. No, that's a different story. That's a different case, so that's, yeah. That's a different case, but even when you mentioned my brother, Eddie Mello. Here at this he he was very successful. He was a 19 year old. He became professional at the age of 17. He was successful Canadian athlete who. Brought boxing boxers. Got the money because of him, because he made. Made it Canada. Made it famous.
Canada famous. You know boxing. But here you have a guy who who's now he was assassinated by. Who Allegedly Mike Desilva, who I was working for in 81 as his bodyguard because Eddie introduced me to him to protect him. But back in 2000, he was he was assassinated and Mike got arrested for that, but he ended up beating it in court. But here's Eddie. He was, God bless his soul, he was had his hands involved in all kinds of.
Fake things, man. I mean, you know, I used to, I used to work for Eddie. You know right, you. Know what I'm saying? And yeah, he kind of got your, he kind of got you started in organized crime because you guys met at a very young age. We talked about it and that and was I think it was that did we talk about that in your in the first podcast? Yeah the first podcast we did. Yes. So let's go back then to like Nanaimo then. Right.
So you you running the nine, I remember you were saying that you even had like at one point you had crack houses going and things like that. So. So when you talk about like the people, right, that are maybe you know they have a bit of money and they may have a business that you, you clean them out, right.
Because this nature I've seen that too like from the stuff I've seen people get hooked and then there's this like they just have this big bill that they just can never pay and then they just have this big appetite that they see feeding and feeding and and and and in in the cases that I saw a lot of times not so much with Kevin. Kevin was just you know just wanted to consume as much drugs as possible when he was really
bad. But I've seen in a lot of guys with businessmen where it's just like it's like a it's a it's a it's an appetite of cocaine and sex workers combined. Right. But in the cases where it's more like the lower income bracket like the people that are more like kind of like marginalized in their in their crack heads and they're they're addicted and stuff like that, how is that like handling that type of and then that type of environment?
Well that kind of environment again you had the you had the working girls who are pretty much your your biggest clientele are the working girls and and then I want being such a small island a lot of and and in that area with the of the girls working they bring a lot of business so. I I took care a lot of the working girls and made sure nothing happened to them. If there's ever a problem, they always ran to me. I always, I always help them and
then in every way possible. So yeah, I took care. A lot of the working girls, I made sure they always had and I always gave them credit because they always paid. You know what I mean? So. So you always took care of the, took care of the girls and then he had the then you have the guys that are working this, you know, the street there, the thieves, you know all that.
Yeah, they're the thieves. They'll go out there and they'll they're doing and breaking and enters and armed robberies and whatever they have to do to get their money, right. And yeah, you know, like I, I I had, you know, so much bringing in weapons and diamonds and gold, you know, boats. I even I had somebody even sign over their house to me. I won't say the guys name but it was more through my brothers contact and there was a guy out and I think he was like in self
sorry and he was a scary dude. I think he he was a commercial fisherman and he had a few connections too. And he would turn the bottom of his house into a crock den and people would come over and hand them their whole paycheck. So it was just, it would my brother would tell him about this, it would just blow my mind and he would look at their paycheck and say, OK, wherever the check was, say it was like for two or $3000, OK, you can stay for three days like he'll
tell him. He'll give him a time limit, right? You know what I mean? And then he would make like sometimes all over a weekend he'd make like 50 grand and stuff. But this guy was ski ran it like an iron fist And yeah, his his his weapon of terror was a ball peem hammer and this guy was like he was long and skinny. You know what I mean Kind of
wiry. So you know he imagine this guy ready got you have a ball peem hammer when it was time to go and he didn't want to go right and and so that's what I'm
saying it's a scary world right. And and you know, again, so you're saying that a lot of times too like this the guys, the guys who are addicted, we're talking more on the street level, They're having to do break and entries, auto thefts, maybe armed robberies, maybe, you know, B and ES, you know, maybe other, you know, like the crime basically is to feed their
habits. So they're out there in the community, you know, you forgot what it is, you know, terrorizing the community to feed their habit, right? You know, someone home gets broken into. They come home, their whole house is ransacked. It's pretty terrifying, right? Kind of like, what the hell, right? Or having a highland counter, right? Someone robbing you? Knife point or gun point, Right. Robbing you. You know, I some hear about people, you know, I say they go
up to an ATM. Next thing you know, they have a knife in their in their ribs. Hey, if you're gonna withdraw some money for me, right? So you know, the the, the habit, you know what I'm saying? It feeds other types of crimes and stuff, right? So let's talk, David. Then you know we're going down, you went, you're Nanaimo. We're gonna do more podcasts about your, you know, 'cause you have so many stories, especially Nanaimo and stuff.
You have so many stories, right? Yeah, let's talk about how you came to Vancouver and then you worked, you ran a building on the an SRO, single room, Oxy, right. Whatever. And it was in Blood Alley in a famous Blood Alley. Famous Blood Alley. And it's funny, Blood Alley has a very colorful history.
And back in the when Vancouver was first founded, Blood Alley, who apparently is where they did the hangings back when, You know, what was it back when Vancouver was first called, Vancouver was actually 1st called Granville. It's called the City of Granville. And then it changed to Vancouver. It's an interesting story. But anyways, so back in the day, we're talking like the 1800s. Blood Alley was where they had gallows and they would hang people.
And apparently people still swear to this day there's a a, a black a woman dressed all in black that wanders Alley and they think she's a ghost. I've heard stories about her in Bled. So Bled Alley is a very colorful history. Even the name Bled Alley. Right. So you ran the building up Blood Alley and and maybe break that down. Like, how did you get the job and what did it tell?
Maybe just a typical day of a life of running a drug building in Downtown Eastside. I had a reputation because when I got out of the, got out of the penitentiary, I guess I, you know, I was doing good. I was. You know, like I said, I was a professional athlete and I was doing good and little dabbling. I was doing, I was muscle and so I was, I was working first with with a triad group. My friend Bob, he's involved with the Triads. His uncle was a big into triad, so he had some.
So I had a legitimate job. I was working in a building having people come in and I, you know, they pay their rent. I rent out the rooms and so more or less I was the eyes of the building. You know no one could sell drugs in there but certain people and that was my but that was it was
all connected anyway. But when I got into blood Alley my friend, God bless him who he's been assassinated and his name is Shawn Reap his name His name was Paiu and I was Paiu's bodyguard because there's a many attempts on his life and. I ended up working for Paiu and Paiu had control of and his and his crew had control of Blood Alley and and I and I again working for Paiu I took control of because I was the more saner. I had more experience, more knowledge, yeah.
Exactly. You know, there's the muscle. And then I was sort of less the organizer with the management and the muscle like you were. Yes, that's what he saw. He saw that in me and he wanted me to come into his crew to take care of that aspect of the of the of the crew or the. And I said yes, I would do that. So yeah, we we had control of the blood alley. So again, we. You know, full control of who comes in the building. You know, we know if any police came in, I would know right
away. You know, if anybody, I would tip off people like like we have drugs in certain rooms. Like I they'd be rented in a it's the stock part. Yes. Yeah, exactly. It'd be a stash room with assembly we have. We rent it to somebody, but nobody be living. It's just be the stash. So no. Have a large amount of drugs dealers on them in the room and just have enough to the sell and says they make this sell their
quota. We go into the stash room, reload them so that they get give the money and then we you mentioned something interesting, sorry David I just wanted I I just want to touch on something you just said. So you said you'd give them their quota. So typically what was their quota to sell? We give them an they have an ounce and their possession that. 28G and you know out of A and out of a gram there they got they're selling points and points is you know like $20.20
dollar points. So you got $200 a gram right there. So, you know, they're selling. They're selling these points or rocks. And yeah, once once they sell that Oz, they they bring the the money that for that Oz. And then we re re up them again. OK, yeah. What would happen if they came up short or they came up say, say, a cockamamie story? Oh, they lost it, Or something like something like that. No, no, no. That we the crew, it was run
with an iron fist man. If anything happened it had to believe somebody you know somebody come in to you know rip off or something. We would know and we'd take action over it. There was just no story. Would have to be legit, legitimate reason or the guy stop and lost it or because of the. He was on the street or something. He had it on him. The police came. He had to dump it or right, Right. You know, so it had to be verified. OK, right. Yes. Right. You know.
And plus you don't wanna, you don't wanna keep saying you keep coming back saying you lost, you lost, you lost. Yeah, you're not gonna be around very long. So yeah, we talked about something quickly. I remember you were saying, OK, so a lot of these like the girls, we're talking about the girls now, right, It's the girls are addicted a lot of times they're in the sex trade, right.
So they're doing, you know, they're they're getting customers and and and besides doing the the sex work a lot of times they would be doing robberies they'd you know, they you maybe break that down a little bit. Who breakdown a lot of them about the the guys who are in the robberies. No, no, no, sorry. The girls. We're talking like on the girls side. So you know these girls are pretty big earners. You were saying something. I remember what selling like some of these girls would come
back with diamond rings and and. Oh yeah, of course, you know, because they're stealing off the tricks or in the. Yeah, yeah. That's what I was getting at. Yeah, exactly. You know, not only do they steal off the tricks, sometimes, you know, they they want to keep them as long as possible. They're they're sucking dry too, right? So yeah, they're sucking in the. They want them to pay as much as they want, you know, keep treating them with money for drugs and drugs.
So they they want to try to keep them for days. You know, they keep a trick for days sometimes and then, you know, and then eventually the trick has once you spend, they dry them out. See ya. That's it. And that's all right. But yeah, yeah, yeah. But sometimes, you know, these girls keep these guys for, you know, weeks, you know? And these guys are spending a lot of money on these girls,
boy. And you know, they can they come to me and to talk and they they're buying the drugs off of me because they know the drugs is good and they know they're not going to get ripped off. They know if anything happens they can come to me, they're protected. So yeah, it was, it was a very well oiled organization which we ran very tight. Talk about some of the money like you know on a on a busy day, like what was what was someone like the the the amounts of money that this your crew
would make? Most busy day would be, well, for Wednesday. That's any drug dealers. Busy day is well for Wednesday and Thursday. Yeah, the money that runs through our hands on that day. So it's it's it's crazy, man. It's just crazy. Yeah, this. You got like 40-50 thousand $60,000. Oh, that's crazy. Wow, grand coming in our hands a night that Wednesday night, You know E grand, you know easily. And then it comes Thursday, you're making another 60-70 thousand, 80,000 sometimes and
even another 100 grand. So yeah, no, you're making hundreds of thousands of dollars, man. Hundreds of thousands of dollars because these guys are are spending all their check, man. Right. What was the most and and this from a this from a you know, for lack of a better word, from a business point of view, what was more profitable? Was it cocaine or heroin? As a as a pro, this has a pure profit. I don't know. They both they both made money, man. They both, they both the same.
Yeah. They both make money man. You know is it? Yeah. They both make money was. Meth around when you were active or was that not really around then? Yeah, I didn't, I didn't mess. I didn't mess around much with the meth because police, the police are hard on meth dealers.
They really hard on meth dealers because it's such a it doesn't cost much and and what happens with people stay up a lot of days and that's when they get really sketched dangerous you know we have yeah so I didn't want that. I had nothing to do with the speed. I didn't want, you know you want nothing to do with that had that. I didn't want that that label on me as a speed dealer in any way. Because it makes people more erratic and more crazy, more unpredictable and violent and
stuff, right? So. So it's and sketchiness. Yeah. People get really crazy because they're up for days and days, man. Weeks on the yeah, no, no, no, no. That's one drug. It's it's no good. It's nothing natural about it, right? It's all chemicals. Yeah, I know. It's pure chemicals. Wow. Not so back down to any side.
So again like these buildings, right, like your crew, you guys ran a few buildings, but but you remember you were mentioning you were breaking down something before that you would work with the owners of the buildings and then these, some of these owners of the buildings would have three or four different Type 4 buildings, right. So you get you basically, if you get a control of the owner, you get control of the the buildings. Yes, of course.
Again, my, my, my, my brother Paiu at that time had because he, he was born in Vancouver. He was, you know, his dad was a, he was a, he was a hit man. His mother was prostitute, Like that's what he grew up into. That's that's what he was. Yeah. So Pi was very well known and you know, so he had a crew and and a lot of the owners saw that. So they they don't want your building ruined. So they you know they ask him, say hey you you you take care. We'll let you take care of the
building. You know you give me some money like you know, they like again like take take care of the building make sure the one destroys it. No fires and you know, no big fights and you know murders and just run it and we give them a percentage, you know, run it clean for them. We get the, we get all the rooms rented out. They get their money for their rooms and and a little cut of the out of the drug money, you
know. So yeah, a lot of owners have, there's a lot of owners in buildings plus stores like pizza stores and pawn stores. They're all into it. So that's an interesting aspect of it. And this is the thing again for the listening audience. So. The drug economy in the Downtown Eastside Nanaimo, BC is massive. So you have the drug sales, you have the spin off, you know the the stealing, the robbery, the fencing, right? And then then on the other side of it you got the money laundering.
Did you have much involvement in the money laundering side? No. The only part I had was the money would come through my hands. I would have to give it to my dealer like snick. And you know they have a couple of keys in my possession. Once I get rid of those keys, I give them the money for those keys. The profit My profit is my profit. Right. And they reload me again, right. And that's how.
I kept your role, was kind of handling the crew, making sure the building was run smoothly, dealing with problems. You know, maybe someone, maybe, let's say this, did you ever have, like, you know, maybe like someone dumb who doesn't know any better? Who's decides that they're going to come to your building and decide they're going to set up shop? What would happen to us, a dummy like that? Thank you for that? Depends on the scenario. It depends who he is, right.
But usually, you know, we, you know, you take the drugs off the guy, you give him a good beating and send him on his merry way, right. And he'll never come back again, you know? And if a guy thinks that, you know, he's from another crew, and I think you're going to do a power trip, well, then that's a different trip right altogether, you know, You know, so they think you could come muscle our crew out of our, out of our, of our money shack.
No, we know. And then there's a little bit of a war going on that'll be taken care of fast, too. So yeah, we had a strong crew. I had a We're all dead. God bless their souls. I'm the only one alive from that crew. Yeah, I want to tell that to the audience when I first met you because I met you through and I and we did a podcast about the Lisa Marie Young podcast, where the way that I met you was you actually try to help the RCMP to solve a murder. And well, I'll let the listeners
listen to that podcast. I won't get too into it. They can listen to it that's called the the it's a case that I of the Lisa Marie Young and and you were a big part of that trying to get justice for this young woman and and so anyways you. Yeah. So again, you really stuck your neck out trying to to help this young woman and especially from the your background and stuff that was really sticking your neck out, right. So anyways, so there's like the drug economy, right?
There's the spin offs of the different types of crimes that are involved, the break in entries, the violence protecting the territory that you know you're building. It's it's you have to it's it's your territory. You have to protect it. Right. And. So I guess what the question is then, it's like what were some of the more extreme things that you've seen how people would protect their, you know territory or or challenges. Oh, wow.
I've seen a few, a few, a few incidents where, you know, we had to come down to A, to A, to a crew and come into their area with, you know, packing a lot of guns and, you know, putting them up against the wall and even put them put one in their leg, you know. Yeah. No, no, we had to, We had a few incidents where we had to show up, show our strengths. And I want you to. Yeah, once you do, you you had to once.
You're getting that. It's a violent world is my point of bringing this up. I want to talk, you know, this is what I want to talk about and the reason why I want to talk to you about this, David, because this is, this is what's kind of going on in Vancouver, the Downtown Eastside. And believe it or not is probably worse than when you
when you were there. So think of all the money they spent and all the promises after Robert Pecton and all the, you know, all the all the the the tragedy of this neighborhood you know there and and you probably know too, you've been there. There's a lot of good, decent people that live there. You know what I mean? This happened to they, they happen to live there and you know, they this is their neighborhood, this is their community, right? So their community is, you know, rife with drugs.
Rife, you know, that's the root problem, right? The the addiction is always there's always going to be a new drug, a new thrill, a new high, a new this, a new that. Yeah, that's all it is. The world's changing, buddy. It's changing. A changing in an experimental way. I guess you're they're going to learn off our mistakes or or or it might be successful. We're going to eventually find out, right? For sure, For sure. It's scary though. It's scary and it's a scary prospect, right?
So David, let's cut it off here. Let's do a Part 2, Let's do a Part 2 next week, because I feel like we just barely even scratched the surface here. And you know, again, you know, I, I asked the listeners, please listen to other David's podcasts on my platforms on iTunes, Spotify. All major platform. He's a great storyteller. He really breaks down his experience. David has nothing to do with the drug world anymore.
He's born again Christian and yeah this this life is behind him and he's like one of the the he's a survivor of this world. I remember when I first met you and I was I was actually beginning of telling that when I got sidetracked a little bit when I first met you from the Lisa Marie case. That's How I Met you from the Lisa Marie case which is a
podcast I did as well. You sent me a picture of of the Italian. Crew, when you were locked up back east and there was probably, what, like 20 dudes in that picture, correct? Correct. Yes. Yeah, and you're the only person that survived out of that picture, So that's pretty amazing. Well, it's it's sad that, you know, you lost all your friends, but the saying you're a survivor. So I'm grateful to have you as a friend, and I'm grateful to hear your stories and for you to
break down your experience. Because ultimately. What you want and the reason why you wanna talk on the podcast and Share your story. You want people not getting this life in the 1st place. You know you're getting this life. You're gonna your life's gonna get ruined. You're gonna get addicted. It's gonna be violent. It's gonna be scary. And you're gonna hurt a lot of people that care about you too. Correct. Correct. Correct. And you're exactly right.
I'm. I'm doing this to tell people that this don't, don't, don't get fooled by the by the media and by the TV shows that this is a glamorous life and it's not. It's not. Could be never had. And if you have have never used drugs. Don't, don't start, don't start. You know, that's all I can say. And I'm 62 years old. By the grace of God, I've been.
I've been saved from a drug overdoses, bullets going through me, knives bouncing off me. I mean, I can so many stories of my life that I almost left me. And by the grace of God, I'm here today. And I'm just wanting to tell people, hey, you know, this is this, this is not a way to live. You know, it's not a way to live. And if you don't know the Savior, Lord Jesus Christ, you know get to know him because it's a good way to live. Well, David, I really appreciate you coming on on the show.
This is the Vancouver, the beautiful and ugly. Unfortunately, we talked a lot about the ugly part of Vancouver and yeah, and let's continue this conversation, 'cause you know, you've told me so this on the downtown East side, you've told me so many stories off off the record already. So I know we just barely scratched the surface on this one. So let's please continue the conversation and I with pleasures all mine having you on my podcast. Thank you. Thank you. God bless you, Mark.
All right, David, you take care. You have a wonderful day. You too. OK.