B.C. gangster charged with passport fraud while awaiting sentencing
Credit to Author: Kim Bolan| Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2019 16:34:42 +0000
Fraser Valley gangster Clayton Eheler has been charged with fraud related to a passport he allegedly obtained earlier this year in the name of his cousin.
At the time, Eheler was awaiting sentencing in a major drug trafficking case, suggesting he may have been attempting to flee the country.
Both Eheler and his cousin Tyler Van Basten, 28, are facing one count of “false statement to procure a passport.”
Eheler is also charged with possession of a forged passport, as well as violating bail conditions the same day as he allegedly made the fraudulent application in March.
The charges were sworn on Sept. 20. There is no first appearance date listed for Eheler, who was in court Monday for his sentencing in the drug case. The hearing will continue in October. But Van Basten, who has no criminal history, is scheduled to make a first appearance on Oct. 11.
In June, federal government officials alerted police to a suspicious application for the Canadian passport allegedly made by Eheler using the name of his cousin, who is nine years younger.
As a result of the new allegations, Eheler’s bail was revoked.
Eheler was convicted along with Matthew Thiessen in June 2018 of possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking — linked to a network that shipped its illicit products to the B.C. Interior and the north.
Eheler and several others were charged in 2015 after officers from the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit executed search warrants at two properties in Chilliwack and seized eight firearms, prohibited magazines, silencers and more than $200,000 in cash. Also seized was over $2-million-worth of drugs, including a large amount of fentanyl.
But Eheler and Thiessen were only convicted of possessing just under 10 kilograms of cocaine in various forms found inside a Chilliwack apartment that police searched in November 2014.
After their conviction, Eheler and Thiessen applied to have their charges stayed due to the length of time the case took to get to trial. But in January 2019 Judge Richard Browning rejected arguments made by their lawyers that their Charter rights had been violated.
Browning said the prosecution was “a particularly complex case,” meaning the length of time the case took was reasonable.
Eheler is considered a Hells Angels associate and was formerly close to members of the Independent Soldiers and the Bacon brothers.
Clayton Eheler