ManitobaThe defence for an accused Hells Angel suggests the portrait that’s emerged at his trial, painting him as a high-level shot-caller in an organized drug trafficking network, hasn’t been borne out by the evidence presented by prosecutors.Trial of Damion Ryan continues with key Crown witness cross-examined about testimonyCBC News · Posted: Sep 25, 2025 7:31 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)The defence for an accused Hells Angel suggests the portrait that’s emerged at his trial, painting him as a high-level shot-caller in an organized drug-trafficking network, hasn’t been borne out by the evidence presented by prosecutors.On Thursday, lawyer Amanda Sansregret cross-examined a drug-dealer-turned-police-informant about reams of surreptitiously recorded calls and accounts of meetings made by him that have been heard at the drug-trafficking trial of Damion Ryan.Sansregret is acting as a “friend of the court,” appointed to assist Ryan, who is representing himself in his judge-only trial at Manitoba Court of King’s Bench.”Bottom line is, you were pretty much using every opportunity you could to get in touch with Mr. Ryan to try and build a relationship with him,” Sansregret said to the witness referred to as “Agent 66,” whose identity is protected by a publication ban.”You’re pushing, you’re doing the deals with [others] but you want to make sure that somehow, you tie Mr. Ryan into these conversations to meet your instructions.”Ryan was among 20 people arrested in February 2022 as part of an RCMP operation called Project Divergent, a multi-year investigation into a drug-trafficking network that spanned provinces. Police seized $70 million in drugs at the time, including 110 kilograms of cocaine, 41 kilos of methamphetamine and three kilos of fentanyl.Police 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)Investigators alleged Ryan is “likely one of the most prolific organized crime members” in Canada.Since the start of his trial on Sept. 10, Crown attorneys Kate Henley and Janna Hyman have spent several days guiding Agent 66 through his audio recordings, screen shots of messages he took, and other evidence RCMP instructed him to gather from 2020 to early 2022.The Crown’s approach has been to establish through these exchanges how, over about two years, Agent 66 gained trust of low- to mid-level suppliers in Manitoba and B.C. in an attempt to get closer to Ryan.Court heard RCMP promised Agent 66 over $900,000 for his efforts. He remains in witness protection.Sansregret argued Thursday it’s clear the officers coaching Agent 66 behind the scenes were focused on implicating Ryan, at least from spring 2021 until the February 2022 Project Divergent bust.She suggested that meetings and communications with Ryan were never freely offered up by other suppliers, and that it was through persistent requests by Agent 66, under the guidance of RCMP, that those things eventually came to fruition.Sansregret also suggested that Ryan’s actual name rarely came up organically in conversation with other suppliers implicated in the investigation, and that Agent 66 only ever got confirmation of Ryan’s alleged link by explicitly clarifying with contacts that they were referring to Ryan.Court has heard Ryan went by nicknames including Big Buddy, Mr. Wolf and Berserker B, used by other contacts Agent 66 made who eventually connected him with Ryan.That includes messages reviewed in court from late 2021 and early 2022 between Agent 66 and a person referred to as “Menace,” who the Crown maintains is Ryan’s brother-in-law, Denis Ivziku. He is accused as a co-conspirator and remains at large.’Never mentions … methamphetamine’: lawyerMenace allegedly arranged shipments of 10 kilograms of methamphetamine and a kilo of cocaine from B.C. to Agent 66 in Winnipeg, according to the Crown.Court heard it was in October 2021, after one of those deals, that Agent 66 was provided with encrypted Whisper phones from Menace, loaded with the encrypted messaging app Threema. He eventually began exchanging messages with a man named Berserker B, court heard.Menace introduced him, saying “This is Mr. Wolf,” believed to be Ryan.Ryan and Agent 66 arranged to meet up in Montreal in December of that year. Prosecutors have suggested this single face-to-face meeting between Agent 66 and Ryan was one of the final key pieces RCMP needed before carrying out the February 2022 bust.They previously argued Ryan went on to arrange a five-kilo cocaine shipment from Ontario to Agent 66 in Winnipeg in January 2022.Sansregret acknowledged that in the December meeting in Montreal, Ryan said he could supply Agent 66 with guns.Though Ryan several times during the meeting agreed to inquire about prices for drugs for Agent 66, including the price for 15 kilos of cocaine, Sansregret argued Ryan never personally committed to providing drugs for money himself.”He doesn’t say, ‘I have a warehouse full of cocaine I can get immediately…. He’s not saying, ‘I have a stash,'” Sansregret argued.”He needs to go to other people to get the answers on the inquiries you put to him,” she said to Agent 66.”That conversation doesn’t end with, ‘Yes, I can get you 15 [kilos] at this price, with this delivery date.’ It’s left up in the air…. Whether or not transportation is available is left up in the air,” she said.Ryan did say he could get cigarettes, cocaine and guns, “but he never mentions, ever, methamphetamine … never mentions fentanyl,” said Sansregret.Agent 66’s testimony wrapped Thursday.Undercover RCMP members involved in Project Divergent are expected to testify over the next week at what’s expected to be a six-week-long trial, presided over by Justice Chris W. Martin.
Defence raises questions over prosecution’s portrayal of Hells Angel as high-level trafficker
