Member of Hells Angels support club in B.C. sentenced to 12 years for drug charges, police say

Throttle Lockers and Hells Angels gear is shown in photos provided by CFSEU-BC.

A Kelowna, B.C., man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison on drug-trafficking charges following a years-long crackdown on the Throttle Lockers Motorcycle Club, according to the province's anti-organized crime task force.

The Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit of B.C. says Zale Coty, 54, was a full-patch member of the motorcycle gang, which is a known support club for the Kelowna chapter of the Hells Angels, according to the agency.

Coty pleaded guilty last week to the charges, including conspiracy to traffic fentanyl, after he was arrested alongside associates Jacob Andrew Cavanagh and Shawn William Carlisle, who also pleaded guilty to multiple drug offences.

Carlisle, then 49 years old, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison in February 2023, while Cavanaugh, 28, received a four-year sentenced in December of that year.

The investigation began in 2017, when the Kamloops RCMP detachment started looking into "a number of violent offences related to organized crime," the CFSEU announced in 2022.

The offences included a homicide, assaults and other events, all of which were believed to be tied to the drug trade, police said.

The investigation led police to the Throttle Lockers club, which investigators accused of operating a large-scale drug-trafficking network as the group expanded from Kelowna to Kamloops.

In 2018, police obtained search warrants for three properties in the Kamloops area, seizing more than $330,000 in cash, as well as fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine, a handgun, and clothing emblazoned with the logos of the Hells Angels and Throttle Lockers clubs.

The three men were charged in relation to the investigation in June 2022.

"We're pleased to see closure brought to this investigation which first began in 2017, during a time when violence, including a homicide, and other serious offences were occurring due to drug trade activity," Supt. Jeff Pelley of the Kamloops RCMP said in a statement announcing Coty's sentence Monday.

"Today, years later, we find ourselves again in the midst of a drug-trafficking conflict. We want to assure the public that results such as this, which began as a proactive project by the Kamloops RCMP Targeted Enforcement Unit, remain a priority for our detachment as they directly impact public safety."

Supt. Kevin O'Donnell of the CFSEU says the arrest and prosecution of the three men "stopped the establishment and expansion of the Throttle Lockers Motorcycle Club in Kamloops and their influence on behalf of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club."