"Nova Scotia shooter case has hallmarks of an undercover op"

[jingofever]

Very curious.

The withdrawal of $475,000 in cash by the man who killed 22 Nova Scotians in April matches the method the RCMP uses to send money to confidential informants and agents, sources say.

Gabriel Wortman, who is responsible for the largest mass killing in Canadian history, withdrew the money from a Brink’s depot in Dartmouth, N.S., on March 30, stashing a carryall filled with hundred-dollar bills in the trunk of his car.

According to a source close to the police investigation the money came from CIBC Intria, a subsidiary of the chartered bank that handles currency transactions.

Sources in both banking and the RCMP say the transaction is consistent with how the RCMP funnels money to its confidential informants and agents, and is not an option available to private banking customers.

The RCMP has repeatedly said that it had no “special relationship” with Wortman.

A Mountie familiar with the techniques used by the force in undercover operations, but not with the details of the investigation into the shooting, says Wortman could not have collected his own money from Brink’s as a private citizen.

“There’s no way a civilian can just make an arrangement like that,” he said in an interview.

He added that Wortman’s transaction is consistent with the Mountie’s experience in how the RCMP pays its assets. “I’ve worked a number of CI cases over the years and that’s how things go. All the payments are made in cash. To me that transaction alone proves he has a secret relationship with the force.”

A second Mountie, who does not know the first one but who has also been involved in CI operations, also believes that Wortman’s ability to withdraw a large sum of money from Brink’s is an indication that Wortman had a link with the police. “That’s tradecraft,” the Mountie said, explaining that by going through CIBC Intria, the RCMP could avoid typical banking scrutiny, as there are no holds placed on the money.

“That’s what we do when we need flash money for a buy. We don’t keep stashes of money around the office. When we suddenly need a large sum of money to make a buy or something, that’s the route we take. I think [with the Brink’s transaction] you’ve proved with that single fact that he had a relationship with the police. He was either a CI or an agent.”

More at:
https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/the ... operation/
or an archive
http://archive.is/JkS9Y

[mentalgongfu2]

I don't know nothing about nothing, but I know $475k is a lot when you can have your cash seized for $10k in the U.S. on suspicion alone based solely on having that much cash.

[Wombaticus Rex]

The earlier piece is also excellent: https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/the ... -shooting/

In some ways, the most interesting thing about this story is actually the source; it's remarkable that this is surfacing in a major Canuckistan publication rather than someone's blog or some lib-commie-prog fringe aggregator.

So is this being leaked by concerned Mounties or is this being outed by a rival institution -- possibly a rival institution from another, nearby country that Canada shares a border with?

I felt like the most interesting and solid point was the anonymous banker's testimony -- based on my own limited AML experience, I was stunned right off the bat at the initial story that anyone, let alone a civilian, was able to both 1) cash that much out with such a fast turnaround and then especially 2) pick it up himself at the motherfucking Brinks lot.

A Canadian retail banking expert speaking on condition that they not be identified says it is unlikely that Wortman was cashing out his own savings when he collected the money from Brinks after the money was transferred from CIBC Intria.

“When you come into my branch and you want a ton of cash, then I say, you gotta give us a couple of days. We put in our Brink’s order, I order the money through Brink’s, then when the money arrives, you come back into the branch, I bring you into a back room and I count the money out for you,” the banking expert said. “Sending someone to Brink’s to get the money? I’ve never heard of that before. The reason is, if I’m the banker, and you’ve deposited your savings in my bank branch, I’m responsible for making sure the money goes to the right person. If you want this money, I’m going to verify your identity and document that. I can’t do that if I’m transferring the money to Brink’s.”

The liability issues here are enormous, and not because of the six figure amount of money involved -- this is basic compliance-level stuff and you're opening up your institution to litigation, investigations and, certainly, nominal fines.

Anyways. More from that first report:

The first video shows Wortman driving what appears to be one of his decommissioned white police cruisers into the fenced yard of the security facility. He is wearing a baseball cap and leather jacket. In the second video, taken inside, he conducts a transaction, then walks back to his cruiser with a carryall apparently filled with 100-dollar bills, according to the source, and stashes the bag in the trunk of his vehicle.

Really makes you wonder how many men in North America have pro-quality mockup cruisers ready to roll when it's time to play. Who are the contractors for jobs like that? Turns out, it's cartels, which has even more interesting implications for our 4GW future.

Sources say he was friendly with Peter Alan Griffon, a Portapique neighbour linked to a Mexican drug cartel. Sources say Griffon printed the decals that Wortman used on the replica RCMP cruiser he used in his murders.

In 2014, Griffon, then 34, was arrested by Edmonton police as part of an operation against a drug trafficking ring operated by the Mexican cartel La Familia and elements of the ruthless multi-national El Salvadoran gang MS-13. He pled guilty and was sentenced to seven years in prison on Dec. 12, 2017, for possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking and weapons charges.

At the time of the arrest police said they had seized from Griffon’s home: four kilograms of cocaine, ecstasy, $30,000 in cash, two .22 calibre rifles, one with a silencer, a .44 calibre Desert Eagle handgun, a sawed-off shotgun, thousands of bullets and body armour.

La Familia has an extensive network and MS-13 has no mercy; this could be a marriage of convenience or this could be a hostile takover and my money would be on "a little bit of both."

As much as I like the resonance of "Halifax Gladio," it's more likely that RCMP, and other Canuckistan intelligence groups, use quasi-legal systems that are directly adjacent to organized crime in order to disguise their operations, their assets and their disbursements. It's not that they're sponsoring mass shootings so much as refusing to clean up loopholes and shady operations because they're taking advantage of them, too.

[annie aronburg]

https://www.frankmagazine.org/post/car-54-where-are-you

[Elvis]

https://www.frankmagazine.org/post/car-54-where-are-you

It's that guy? I read about that February incident somewhere. It's him. Weird.

[norton ash]

The RCMP has a huge spook element. Sounds like the asset about to be burned went to war.

[cptmarginal]

Wow, fascinating. I meant to start a general thread about this terrible shooting as soon as it happened if only because this is a Canadian forum.

(Sometimes I wish I was Canadian, having been raised on SCTV)