Thomas Crawford, who Kamloops Mounties used to believe was second-in-command in the local chapter of the Independent Soldiers, had his bail revocation overturned in B.C. Supreme Court.
"I'm satisfied that the order that I made revoking Mr. Crawford's bail was an order made without any jurisdiction," said B.C. Supreme Court Justice Bruce Preston, who pulled the 27-year-old's bail on Monday after he pleaded guilty to breaching his conditions."Mr. Crawford, you should take the order of revoking your bail as a preview of what's going to happen if you breach your conditions again."In pleading guilty, Crawford admitted to breaching bail conditions on which he was placed in 2007 after he was arrested and charged with a number of drug- and weapons-related offences.On March 20, he was out past his curfew with two other men, who are alleged to have been waving guns around at a pair of Sahali restaurants.He was also prohibited from being inside one of the restaurants, where he is alleged to have conspired with alleged Independent Soldiers leader Jayme Russell to sell drugs to a pair of undercover cops in 2007.Last summer, Crawford claimed in court to have left the Independent Soldiers — and defence lawyer Chris Thompson said his client has since had his gang tattoos covered with other ink.However, Thompson said, the decision by Crawford to leave the gang has created "a tremendous amount of animosity" between him and the other gangsters.As a result, Thompson said, Crawford is in danger at Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre — where Russell has been in custody since his arrest last month.
"He didn't come out of his cell all the time he was in KRCC because he knows he can't," he said. "This is as serious as it gets."
Russell was among five men — all of whom police say are affiliated with the Independent Soldiers — arrested March 11 at the conclusion of a four-month undercover investigation.Mounties say they seized three kilograms of cocaine, thousands of dollars in cash, a loaded semi-automatic handgun, body armour and three vehicles at the conclusion of the investigation.Crawford's drug charges stem from his alleged dealings with undercover officers in a separate investigation in early-2007.He's alleged to have sold the cops four ounces of cocaine, a .357-calibre handgun and a box of bullets.
Russell was also charged in connection with the 2007 sting, and was convicted in January of trafficking in a controlled substance.
He's scheduled to be sentenced on April 8.Crawford is scheduled to stand trial on his charges in July, but Thompson has indicated a guilty plea may be entered before then.Preston sentenced Crawford to 30 days in jail for the breach charge.

The arrest outside of Kamloops's most notorious strip club last March was was sudden, loud and dramatic.With guns drawn, members of the RCMP detachment's elite emergency response team detonated concussion grenades then swarmed the parking lot of the Rendezvous Hotel before hauling off two unidentified men. Police refused to release names or charges and the city's media soon became impatient for answers.
Expectations were high when, two days later, a news conference was called at the downtown detachment on Battle Street.Cameras flashed inside the packed room as Insp. Yves Lacasse, along with Supt. Jim Begley and Kamloops Mayor Terry Lake, announced that city police had dealt a decisive blow to the Kamloops chapter of the Independent Soldiers gang by arresting the men they suspected to be the gang's top two leaders.Arrested on drug and weapons charges outside of the Rendezvous Hotel two days earlier, Lacasse confirmed, had been 26-year-olds Jayme Norman Russell and Thomas Crawford, the alleged No 1 and 2, respectively, of the Kamloops' cell of one of Western Canada's most powerful gangs, said to have connections with the Hell's Angels.Body shots of both men, on display in the room, showed the gang's name tattooed in script on their thick forearms.Lacasse explained their busts had been the culmination of a five-month undercover probe into the city's drug trade launched as part of the detachment's new crime reduction strategy. Initially targeting street dealers, he said the focus of the investigation moved to the "upper echelons" after police managed to shut down some of the city's more prolific drug houses.In total, he said undercover officers bought $60,000 worth of cocaine, crystal meth and other drugs from up to 35 other street- and mid-level dealers during the course of the probe.Russell and Crawford, he alleged, were at the top of the drug pyramid. Both were charged with trafficking cocaine while Crawford was also hit with a weapons charge for allegedly selling a .357 magnum handgun to an undercover officer.
They were later released on a bail.News of their arrests was met with applause from the city, with Lake taking the podium afterward to commend the RCMP for cracking down on the city's drug trade and
The fact Russell already had outstanding assault charges for allegedly holding a gun to the neck of a man outside of a Kamloops bar in 2006, added weight to Lacasse's statement that a severe blow had been dealt to the gang.
Further weight was added this January when Russell was arrested and charged with attempted murder for allegedly stabbing32-year-old Chad Porter three times in the neck outside of Cactus Jack's Saloon. Unconfirmed reports following the stabbing connected Porter to the notorious UN gang.Russell was denied bail on the new charge and held at the Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre in anticipation of his upcoming trials.But a year after the dramatic arrest outside of the Rendezvous, Kamloops authorities are not much further ahead in their fight against the Independent Soldiers, due, largely, to unco-operative witnesses during the court process.