ManitobaA drug-dealer-turned-informant managed to work his way through a network of people to link up with the brother-in-law of a high-level Hells Angel target police have called “likely one of the most prolific organized crime members” in Canada.Drug-dealer-turned-informant testifies alleged trafficker connected him with brother-in-law Damion RyanBryce Hoye · CBC News · Posted: Sep 18, 2025 2:38 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hour agoDamion Ryan, then 41, is seen in a mugshot at a March 2022 RCMP news conference in Manitoba, where Mounties announced 20 arrests, including Ryan, as part of a trafficking investigation dubbed Project Divergent. (CBC)A drug-dealer-turned-informant spent more than a year working his way through a network of people allegedly involved in a multi-provincial trafficking ring until he linked up with the brother-in-law of a high-level Hells Angel target police have called “likely one of the most prolific organized crime members” in Canada.The trial of Damion Ryan, the target, continued Thursday with more testimony from Agent 66, a former drug dealer paid over $900,000 by RCMP to help ensnare Ryan and others allegedly involved in a drug trafficking network with ties abroad.Agent 66 is now in witness protection and his name is under a publication ban.Prosecutors and Agent 66 say Mr. Wolf, Big Homie, Big Buddy, Polar Bear and Dime, heard on recordings and intercepted messages presented at the trial, are all references to Ryan.Ryan was among 20 people arrested as part of the multi-year Project Divergent investigation that culminated in a bust in February 2022.Court heard recorded audio Thursday of conversations from a few months before the bust between Agent 66 and a B.C.-based supplier, referred to as Denis and Menace. Crown attorneys Kate Henley and Janna Hyman say that is Denis Ivziku, Ryan’s brother-in-law.RCMP officers from multiple police agencies said they seized more than $70 million worth of illicit drugs as part of an investigation called Project Divergent in 2022. They also seized multiple weapons and Hells Angels paraphernalia, some of which they said belonged to Damion Ryan, whose Winnipeg trial is expected to last six weeks. (Ron Boileau/CBC)Ivziku, then 24, was indicted as a co-accused and a warrant for his arrest was issued after the Project Divergent bust, but he has never been located.Audio from a meeting in October, played in court, ends with someone named Denis agreeing to sell Agent 66 and the undercover officer with him 10 more kilograms of meth for $67,500 and a kilogram of cocaine for around $41,000, after a successful deal for roughly the same amount earlier in the fall.They also discuss transporting the drugs by air or train if they can’t work out a way to outfit a vehicle with a compartment big enough to securely haul future shipments to Manitoba.Agent 66 asks the man identified as Denis whether Ryan can help facilitate outfitting a vehicle with a bigger hidden compartment area.”I talked to him bro.… We’ll try to figure it out together,” Denis replies in the recording.”Let’s fit out a car then,” Agent 66 is heard saying in response. “If Damion has a hookup who can fit it out … I don’t.”In another secret recording played in court, an undercover officer present with Agent 66 asks Denis how long he has known Mr. Wolf. He replies Mr. Wolf “is my brother-in-law.”Audio from a subsequent meeting includes Denis asking whether Agent 66 is open to getting his one kilogram order of cocaine from Ontario.”Our guy … has powder out there,” Denis says on the recording.”Like, Damion?” Agent 66 replies.”Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Denis responds.Days later, a transporter provided Agent 66 with 10 kilograms of meth, one kilogram of cocaine and two encrypted Whisper phones in Winnipeg, for which he paid over $70,000 in total, court heard.The phones came programmed with Denis’s contact info under the name “Elvis P,” Agent 66 testified.On Oct. 21, 2021, Denis sent Agent 66 contact information for someone going by the nickname Berserker B and said he was told it’s Mr. Wolf. Agent 66 said he believed that to be Ryan.In other exchanges, Agent 66 proposes Denis come with him to Montreal for a cigarette deal, saying he wants to meet with Mr. Wolf while there to get “his blessing” and discuss establishing a cocaine network from Ontario to Winnipeg.”My guys consider me top dog. I like talking to top dogs,” Agent 66 says on a recording. “Why don’t we just … meet up with Mr. Wolf.”In another recording, Agent 66 tells Denis he saw a photo of Denis’s sister on Facebook posing with a tattoo she has on her leg that includes the name Damion.In an exchange between Agent 66 and Berserker B (identified as Damion Ryan), through the encrypted Threema app on his Whisper phone on Nov. 22, 2021, Agent 66 got a message saying, “I am in Montreal in a few weeks, free to do coffee.”Hyman and Henley are expected to play audio of that meeting Thursday afternoon in court.Ryan is currently self-representing, with help from Amanda Sansregret, a lawyer appointed by the court. Court of King’s Bench Justice Chris W. Martin is presiding over the trial.The trial is expected run into October.ABOUT THE AUTHORBryce Hoye is a multi-platform journalist with a background in wildlife biology. He has worked for CBC Manitoba for over a decade with stints producing at CBC’s Quirks & Quarks and Front Burner. He was a 2024-25 Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT. He is also Prairie rep for outCBC. He has won a national Radio Television Digital News Association award for a 2017 feature on the history of the fur trade, and a 2023 Prairie region award for an audio documentary about a Chinese-Canadian father passing down his love for hockey to the next generation of Asian Canadians.Selected storiesEmail: bryce.hoye@cbc.caFacebookMore by Bryce Hoye
Agent earned trust of brother-in-law of Hells Angel ahead of $70M trafficking bust in Manitoba, court hears
