You know, as I said, I'm very honored to have him as a friend. He's had a quite an amazing life from being a professional boxer to being bodyguards for some scary people and some, I think some celebrities too. You said David. So David, please introduce yourself and and tell a little bit about your background and some of the people you worked with and you know, the little little snapshot of what the life of David Bella. Thank you for having, Mark.
My name is David Velloy. I'm a 62 year old male. I'm a born again Christian now and my I've been out of the crime scene since 2004. It's my last sentence was 2002. I've been in a lot of organized crime families. Italian, Portuguese 1981. I was in the front page of Mike de Silva's house was being bombed. I was his bodyguard. Bikers in Toronto and also here in and on the island, Vancouver Island. I work with the Colombians with the Cubans and I I was.
I was arrested on $1,000,000 extortion on this Robert involved with Robert Bidwell who was Robert Vesco's partner who? Had an island off the Cuba under Castro's protection. I've been involved with a lot of, a lot of people, a lot of organizations, And yeah, I have quite the insight on the organized crime and drug addiction because I was a drug addict myself. Your name of your friend that was a boxer, Eddie. Eddie Mellow, Eddie Mill.
He was a top contending boxer. He was a Was he a middle weight or what was his weight? He was a middle weight hurricane. Middle weight. Extremely talented. Yeah. He was a savage in the ring. He was a real probably one of the best in my opinion. Probably one of the most underrated and one of the best Canadian boxers of all time. In my opinion, he ended up being an enforcer for the Montreal mom. Is that correct?
That's correct. Yeah. So when you're talking about this Mike De Silva, just so people understand that they want to do a little research, Mike De Silva was kind of in the heart that we won't get in this episode. We'll do an episode specifically about that. But I just want to provide some context to some of the names that David I just brought up.
And then the guy in the island, the Vesco, he was like high up and he would, he would think he would like he had a direct connection to Castro and and with the Colombian cartel. So basically they bought an island and they were trafficking massive amounts of cocaine. And yeah, it's a crazy fascinating case. The world will do an episode just on that because it's just such a mind blowing thing.
So the point is David was on the top of the, the top one percenter type of criminals that you know the top 1% like Colombian cartels, the mafia out of Toronto, two families out of one out of Toronto, one out of Hamilton, the Montreal mafia, which is Montreal is a very mafia city. And then also working for the directly as a bodyguard for the Colombian cartel. We talked a little bit about that some of the earlier podcast. So yeah, David's really the real deal here.
And that's why I'm grateful to have a lot of true crime podcasts and television shows and things like that. You know, they talk about these things, but they don't have a first hand source, right? David's a first hand source, a survivor of this world. So if in my opinion, it's a real honor to have them about two areas, we're going to talk about his life case against you in which you won. Yeah, break that down first like cuz that's very fascinating.
You. Yeah, you really, you basically ran Nanaimo and then I for people don't understand that Nanaimo is a major city in the in the drug pipeline. And I released. I was released from Kent in 9096 from from segregation, doing 2 1/2 years of segregation. I was released from segregation out to society, which I had. 2 something years left of mandatory to do and I I successfully did that. Mandatory.
I I I did some but I went back to boxing and I fought on pay-per-view on the commando challenge too. I went posted that fight too. I had that place. I'll post it again. Yeah, I won that fight. And from that fight the promoter was from who lived on the island. That's how I became the island. And so I. I I I met Don Arnot who promoted that fight. So I I love the island. So I decided to come to the island. But at that time I was, you know, I was living a clean life
and I was married. But during that time my my wife relapsed and she had yeah, she had another man's child and that. Yeah, that made me. I lost it. And then I went back to everything that I was for and and. And people who knew me because, you know, I had that, you know, fame as a fighter, you know that that attracts people. And anyways, yeah. And then I started the I started my shit again. And yeah, and what happened was this town, the junkies, it was a lot of needles here.
And when crack came out, I brought crack to this island and. Yeah, and police sort of let me go because it took the needles off the street, right? Right. Yeah, so I They gave me. They gave me grace. They didn't bother me. They let me. They let me. I made a lot of money, man. They just let me sell my drugs, you know, I was doing what I was doing. I wasn't doing so much violence then. But then a little later on, I started doing the violence.
That's when they decided they wanted to arrest me. And they and they they. They didn't bust me. What happened was they there was a news clipping that came out that this the mayor of Nanaimo wanted to know why the police spent over $1,000,000 trying to arrest me when they have Hells Angels and other you know triads and other gang members here and nothing was ever spent on that kind of amount to arrest anybody and there and. They said, well, David was a high individual. We had our reasons.
You know, he has bunkers of explosives and that's what they assumed that I had and that was the reasoning. But they didn't, they didn't find nothing and nothing was arrested. So that's so you know I just let you know about that story about the $1,000,000 race not me and arrest mentioned before to me David member you mentioned before like the when you basically you know Ran Nanaimo yes what organizations you working you're working with or. Well, I I worked with, I worked with a Mexican.
The people I was involved in were involved with the Mexican cartel, right? OK. So I was got any scarier than that. Yeah, there was. Yeah, they like pretty. If anyone ever watches narcos that we know what what the what the Mexican cartel can get up to they they they're pretty, pretty ferocious, right. So. Very ferocious and there's two two guys out of Victoria that were partners. I will mention their last name of course one's the guys names Nick and the other guy is big.
James and I worked for both of these guys and they they supplied me all the best drugs, best drugs and and plus I had. Their crew. Also the make. You know, I had their crew, which, right, if you needed, if you needed extra muscle, you had unlimited muscle, yeah. And people also knew, like other other heavies on the island, knew who I was involved with too. So that also gave me grace too, right?
Yeah. So yeah that's who I was involved with with with Nick and James they were they they had full control of the of this island pretty much. So I wanted to bring that up because and then I was interested in bringing the Naimo up because the Naimo and then lot of ways is kind of like the pipeline into Vancouver. Far as a drug deal, drugs come from a lot of different places airports, the land, the border. But Nanaimo is a major portal
you know from you, right. So a lot of the drugs, do you feel that most of the drugs that you that went through your hands that they kind of just stay on the island or did they're also lots go over like to the mainland and stuff? Oh yeah, they, they go all over. They've come through the ports and that from here they go to, you know, from Victoria. They they move, you know, like also they go into the States
from here to the reservations. So you know, because we got pot, they send the pot over, they send a Coke over or vice, so whatever, you know, you know, guns and weapons, yeah, it's just one big circle man. So this for like OK there you know again this for the listeners, right. So drugs, drugs is a heavy business, right. It's a heavy, heavy business and and running that business is you
got to have a heavy hand. So The thing is, is this is that people want to use drugs sometimes they don't have the money to pay for drugs and you know, obviously not getting explicit or implicating yourself and anything but just talking generally typically how does one besides taking drugs and overdose and besides that, how does one get in trouble with drugs besides you know the taking drugs.
Like what are the some of the scenarios that you've seen were someone that say they get drugs on consignment or don't want to pay for them or don't have the money either to maybe break down that aspect of it. You know that makes sense, but. Being a drug. Being a being a successful drug dealer you want to get. You want to find somebody that has a lot. You want to get them addicted so you can start taking their homes, their boats, jewelry,
their guns, whatever they have. That's you want to get somebody, You give them the drugs for free, man. Here you get them, get them, get kind of get them hooked, so to speak. Get them fish on the fishing line, you get them hooked, get them wired and that person is yours. And that's what you want. You know, I had a couple of millionaires on on my payroll, You know what I mean? And you, you just give them,
man. You just give them and you give them and then you have then then you want you have people that eventually run out of their money. You know, they're not millionaires. So you know, they have maybe had homes or had condos, you know, or you know, had nice vehicles. They work and then they have no more nothing. What they do is that you know they. To get their high, they'll do anything. They'll, you know, they'll rip off drug dealers. They'll steal from their family
members. They'll do whatever they takes to get that, that drug day that they leak. Yeah, because they've been, they have such a habit, you know, because they've been using and you just can't cut them off, you know? Yeah. So yeah, I tell a story. In my Vancouver Beautiful and Ugly series. I had a roommate, and I don't think I ever told you this story, David. So I'll tell it really quickly. So this guy moved in. I was like, I was a kid, right? I was like going.
I was just out of high school. I think it was only 22, maybe 20-3. Yeah, this guy was older than me. He was like in his 30s. He had a he had his own business. He delivered auto parts like to round the city so people would call him, oh, I need this. I need a starter, right. And he had a good business. He was kind of like what they call it with a Courier, but for for the auto part business. We created this business from scratch, made good money. He had. When I moved into his house, I
was like into his house. He rented me a room. But actually, the house wasn't his, but he was sharing a room together. We're sharing. We're sharing a suite together. So he had a room. I had a room, right. So when I when I moved in, all the furniture in the living room was his, you know, had a TV, had couches. He had a bedroom set. He had a car. He had a truck. He had a boat. He had a motorcycle. And I'd come home. So I was going to school.
I'd come home from school. I'm like, oh, the couches are gone. Oh, the T V's gone. Oh, the bed's gone. Oh, the car's gone. Oh, the truck is gone and the boat is gone. And I'm not kidding, David, he he was left. All he had was a mountain bike and he was sleeping on one of those, you know, those blue foamy things. When you're camping, I think it's called the insulate. You know where you go camping. It's like a blue roll.
Put out your sleeping bag. So just like a little like a foamy roll, he was sleeping on that and and he had no money for rent anymore. So the the landlady kicked him out and and then and then I don't know high out of his mind he decided that he was going to ride his bike to Yellowknife. I don't know if he made it or not.
I don't know if any but but his friend who was a tree planter came to visit him and soon as his friend came into the house saw everything gone and I told him, hey, what was going down he goes, oh shit he's doing coke again. And I've seen that with other like quote mayor talk a lot about my friend Kevin. He got a student loan within about 3 or 4000 bucks blew it in one weekend on coke just it's
it's it's crazy. So in your experience, it's just in generally speaking did you find that the coke people that use coke more rabbit or is it the heroin there or is it equaled if it it just if it just depends on their their appetite? Well, you know, once you get started, you can't stop. You just can't stop. People are, as you get become such a pig on it. You right. You just kind of stop. Yeah, you just stop it.
And then plus, you have friends that you know you don't want to be. You don't want to be alone. And you got all these people that love you. And Oh yeah, you're my best friend. I would kill for you. I do this for you. I do that when you're flying the OH. Plus, you got all the the girls in her and you know you're the right, you're the man. Then over all that run. So there's all those people. Yeah, for sure.
I I, you know over the years you have known a few escorts you know ladies of the night and stuff like that. And they would tell me about crazy calls they'd get they'd make like 5 grand on the weekend. The guy would even want sex. He's so high out of his mind on below and they're just like yo keep it going keep making calls for him because you know the key the long as the party's going they're getting paid. They don't even have to do it. I think the guy's just so out of his mind.
And I've heard that scenario quite a few times over the years. Back I used to work in, you know, bars and nightclubs and stuff and a lot of escorts and stuff would come in some of the places I worked. And I, you know, I got friendly with them as customers. And you know, you know, a lot of them were, you know, for to me, you know, I didn't use them and stuff. But for me and them, they, you know, where we were on good terms and they were nice to me and things last.
So they tell me all these crazy stories and stuff and some of them pretty pretty like you know, some of the I won't get into it now but some of the stories were also pretty like what some of these guys were into. But but my point is, is that people change on these things. Like you know what I mean? I've seen it. I've seen it firsthand. You're a nice mild mannered.
I've worked in the stock market industry seen a lot of drugs in there and they just become very grandiose and crazy and their appetites get big for prostitutes and kinks.
And you know what I mean? It really, it really does something to some people's like personalities were it's like they they can't control themselves anymore and it's I've I've seen and I'm probably sure you've seen even more of your background maybe Breakdown likes like like some of the more extreme examples where a guy just was starting to dabble and then at the end like how much money that some of these people
like burnt through. Well, that when you you were talking about your friend owning a business, well like again and I and I, I was telling you about being a successful drug deal you. You want to get somebody hooked and sink. While there was one guy who owned the pizza company pizzas, couple chains, he had a couple stores and I got this guy all wired on coke and I ended up owning. We ended up owning his
businesses. Yeah, we ended up owning his businesses, took it from them legally and and from there his business. We had our drug dealers not only delivering pizzas. Hope we were delivering coke. Legit. Oh wow. So when they would someone say they want a special pizza?
Wow or even or even not even we were just you know have a you know we'll have a pizza driver who is up in our crew bring pizzas but on the way making a stood up dropping up a key or a couple of keys or picking up key you know cuz we had he was legitimate he was a Pete. If he got pulled over, he. Doing a pizza thing, right, Right. So, yeah, so we got this guy for all his, got him for everything and every. And you know what? It's so bad that he came to the. I couldn't give him no more.
I mean, I, you know, I couldn't give him his day at this. Last thing he could give me was his shoes. Oh my God. His shoes and I felt so bad for him. I felt so, yeah, they were good quality shoes, right? So that. Wow. So what do you think though? OK, like this is, this is, as you know, more of a philosophical question, the like the, the root of addiction.
Like, again, that's like, what do you think just from all your years you've seen, you've been around a lot, you've seen a lot of stuff and seen a lot of tragedies, tragic cases. What do you think? Is that the root of this addiction? Like, what do you think it's feeding besides the high, you know what I mean? Like there has to be something more than just the buzz, if that makes sense. You know what a lot of it has to do with the media, with TV and, you know, music.
You know, glamorizing, glamorizing this world of, you know, you'll see TV on the drug dealers and you know, the Al Capone like Scarface and everybody sees this glamour and. And yeah. And a lot of people are naive, you know, they see, they see can have a handle on it. Oh yeah, I can quit anytime. Yeah, they got a lot of money to their life is a bore. You know that?
You're married. They want a little something extra and they don't know what they're getting themselves into because they're naive to it, right? And once they get started, then the devil bites the man. Because it's the devil's drug, right? He has to call it the devil's dandruff.
That that and it's true because you know there's a story about cocaine the the the coca leaf was because they they the back of the years before they they used to take this they enslave the the Colombian people and and so the the chiefs got together and they put a curse on the western world with the coca
leaf. All right, yeah, I see what you're saying because again too, it's like if you go to like my my wife, that password, that she was actually Peruvian and you know, they use coca leaves, like, you know, for tea and medicinal stuff, but cocaine is a very different thing.
It's like you know they take it takes a ton of leaves, £1000 of leaves to make a make a pound basically of Coco paste and then that gets mixed with all kinds of like like kerosene and chemicals and and you know by the time it gets to the street like the stuff that's in it. And you know what I mean it's it's just like you said you like it. I remember, I remember I was at a party once and this person brought out a big thing of coke and I could smell it like across
the room. Like it was like because it was like in a yet it in a bag and it was, it was quite like, it was quite, quite big. It was like probably the size of like, you know, those, you know, those pool ball cues. It was probably about like four times the size of that, like in a big block, but like a big square, right. You know, using that as a a measurement thing, like a cool, those pool cues, but four time, but four times of those, four of
those together. And I remember you opened the bag and you could smell it across the room and it was just like this potent, like really like intense, like chemical odor, right. So the stuff that's in it, it's like it's it's very like it's a very intense, it's a very like powerful chemical. You know, it's a, it's a, it's a
chemical, right. And the the thing that I've seen with cocaine addiction is that I think in a lot of the cases too, it gives people kind of like bipolar or chemical imbalances. And so I've known a lot of people that were able who did do lots of it, and they got off it and it's like they're never the same again. You know what I mean? Like there's something like this almost like they have a type of like, almost brain damage. Like it's like they they fried
their brain out, you know? And then someone says, oh, yeah, this guy used to do like an ounce of coke a week. I'm like whoa well not surprised you know so it seem like like the the physical effects it has like I remember one time my friend Kevin who was a pretty bad coke at it. I went and visited him once. I cuz he wasn't answering his phone and he he's 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 pig style. He hasn't left. He hadn't left the his apartment for over a week. I go in his bedroom and I'm not kidding, Dave. It was so disgusting. He had a bathroom across the hall. He was so paranoid, like, so paranoid. But 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 claimed 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 that paranoid. He was kneeling at the mail slot because it his door had like a mail slot to push the mail through. And he was kneeling at the mail slot looking through the mail harm and he had a gun and he was paranoid that someone was coming to raid. I'm like, well, who do you think? I don't know somebody, somebody as and he actually had knee he hurt. He actually had knee issues after that. Yeah, you know, cuz they be up for so many hours, no sleep.
That's. And another thing with cocaine where they make that in the jungle you don't risk, you see a lot of people picking at her 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 it 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. Yeah, I heard about that in India. Cuz 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 he's scratching and and I'm like dude, go have a shower like you're you're you're making me. Well you're making me.
Yeah. You know, that's what I'm saying And the reason I bring this up because he's brought up something interesting because in the 80s you'll buy me 5 Scarface. You know guy doing coke with all these attractive women and you know getting the, you know, the hookers on, you know, the sex workers on on television. You know they're always gorgeous and you know they're either they do they they they did do a really great job of glamorizing it. Right.
Glamorizing it the money and somehow it's cool and again but that like the stockbroker guys that did it they always thought it was like a cool status thing or you know I remember there was this this is hilarious. There was this Courier company downtown Vancouver. When I ex I when I worked in the
stock industry. I won't say the name of the company in case it's so around but this Courier company, they they would call them and this guy would call me in with the uniform, you know and had this Manila you know, business type of envelope and it was cocaine in it And and yeah, I 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 this go down to Alito. They they make some big money on the stock market. Next thing you know, they divorced their wife of 30 years or their escort is now their girlfriend. You know, of course they're paying through the nose. Come in the office at 7:00 in the morning.
The guy's wearing his same suit that he has been all week and he's chopping a line on the desk. Right. And he just looks horrible. He looks listless, like he looks like his head's going to explode. And you know that that really grossed me out. And course that, you know, I didn't. I, I, I quit that industry 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 I'm like, you know this seeing their lives ruined. I haven't almost none of them kept their money. None of them kept their families or probably their families hate them. And a lot of them are probably dead now, 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 underlining 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 will 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 bus because 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, yeah, 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, you know. You got you got all kinds of athletes professional athletes you know like daddy. Daddy who who who is who is Tad. Sorry Taunty who was murdered in the in the United States.
He there was such a world champion multimillionaire, but he couldn't give up to the his, his lifestyle, You know, as a as a drug guy, as a drug dealer and a gangster. And hearing it making millions is such a professional fighter and he ends up getting assassinated. Was that the one where he got, Was that the guy they got strangled and he actually thought that it was his wife or girlfriend or ex-girlfriend filled him? That was John. That was Gotti. But he was not involved in drugs.
No, that's a different story. That's different case. So that's yeah. That's but even when we mentioned my brother Eddie Mellow and here at this, he was very successful. He's a 19 year old. He became professional at the age of 17. He was successful Canadian athlete who brought boxing PP. Boxers. Got the money because of him, because he made it, made it famous Canada, famous boxing.
Here you have a guy who who is now he was assassinated by who allegedly Mike de Silva, who I was working for in 81, his bodyguard because Eddie introduced me to him. To protect him. But back in 2000, he was, Eddie was assassinated and Mike got arrested for that, but he ended up beating it in court. Here's Eddie. He was, God bless his soul, he was had his hands involved in all kinds of big things, man. I mean, you know, I used to, I used to work for Eddie, you know?