{"id":20525,"date":"2026-03-07T15:58:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T15:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/?p=20525"},"modified":"2026-03-07T17:13:51","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T17:13:51","slug":"the-habibs-and-the-kingpin-crew-in-your-corner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/?p=20525","title":{"rendered":"The Habibs and the Kingpin Crew &#8211; &#8216;In your corner&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"372\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/video\/embed\/9150176\/\" width=\"670\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nSurrey slumlord Amit Chopra reached out to Kelowna mayoral candidate David Habib to help remove tenants from a drug house in 2022. Habib&#8217;s solution was simple, board the property up with the druggies inside.  \u201cI\u2019ve always been as I like to say, \u2018in your corner,\u2019\u201d said Habib. He finished in third place in the October 15, 2022 Kelowna election with 1,518 votes.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" height=\"191\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEiGBa_EBt0L_DT3K8nJNaRfvTXIab1gqXJiKwovMbcg1GNWY5G6r7CrfjbUPoRxNBHfRqGZzsTlKpEhXkEXsIkp7FhlhlV98fSQz76AhjUNmF_EG7lRhnlFRfG5BpS8WBNEx2uWhe5--w4z4mwjWKRavC8WYUgTHbwqP8fdRVAZ45RjHZmNoNwGHngT\/w191-h191\/pop.png\" width=\"191\" \/><br \/>\nIn Sept 2013 a truck exploded in the driveway of a home in Kelowna as the result of a bomb. The truck didn&#8217;t just catch fire, it exploded in the middle of the residential neighbourhood in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n<table><Tr><Td>The resulting fireball destroyed the vehicle and was labelled &#8216;suspicious&#8217;. <\/td>\n<p><Td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" height=\"258\" src=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-Gd_ShJrrDis\/WIuJq3naLGI\/AAAAAAAAybk\/XoP7Il8EAxk85A0ewQyALdWDpwccQTF5ACLcB\/w400-h258\/4290.png\" width=\"400\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>Cops dealt with 3 bomb cases that year, including when one blew up a truck owned by David Habib. David Joseph Habib&#8217;s brother, Dale, was president of the Kingpin Crew, a disbanded puppet club of the Hells Angels. It folded in 2013 on orders of the HAMC.<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"200\"><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-cZ5910sgqIg\/WIz_dJJd_OI\/AAAAAAAAyeA\/LfQ1DdUPK2U0VZ1gApqfjZ9kRuVTZbkhACLcB\/w236-h351\/kevin_%25281%2529.png\" width=\"200\" \/>\n <\/td>\n<td>The Kingpin Crew sold drugs from Habib&#8217;s &#8216;Liquid Zoo&#8217; nightclub for years, including mountains of cocaine by major operator Kevin Van Kalkeren. Kevin Van Kalkeren bought 16 years for trafficking in 2016. <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>At some point Dale Habib and the Kingpin crew lost the support of the Hells Angels. David Habib tried to sell the club and building to a numbered company. A Liquor Control Branch investigation found that one of the new owners was Hells Angel President Damiano Dipopolo. The Branch refused to transfer the liquor license and the sale was unwound. The nightclub&#8217;s license was returned in late 2011 and Habib reopened on January 9, 2012 with a special anti-gang condition. 3 days later, cops did a walk through of the club and saw a known gangster\/drug dealer wearing a cap with the gang\u2019s insignia on it.<\/p>\n<table><Tr><\/p>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" height=\"382\" src=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-o6NpFASumL8\/WIz7k16RCJI\/AAAAAAAAydo\/ND9nIwEBi38z-8RVWZuxgHqGbAsSjSQJwCLcB\/w265-h382\/kingpin%2Bzoo%25281%2529.jpeg\" width=\"265\" \/><\/td>\n<p><Td>Habib said that while he had heard of the Kingpin Crew and knew they were a motorcycle group, he didn&#8217;t think they were a criminal gang.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"300\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-EwtnLOZ0HUM\/WIz-0GDr6-I\/AAAAAAAAyd8\/aPuZcBfSVOg_0FlOtvnGEOKcdakV5nkyQCLcB\/w320-h300\/hqdefault.png\" width=\"300\" \/><br \/>\nDamiano Dipopolo, thief and ex-HAMC Kelowna president.<\/td>\n<td>\n <\/td>\n<td width=\"312\"><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-742O3U2ob34\/WIz5WM_rOUI\/AAAAAAAAydQ\/wg403r43utAkDcZP830h7RRxAZhTBYXaQCLcB\/w312-h320\/kpc.JPG\" width=\"300\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"315\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HzCbJ-7euoY?si=WPCtNcBpfFGX__Kf\" title=\"YouTube video player\" width=\"560\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nDonny Lyons was a member of the Kingpin Crew and was close to VP Lester Jones. Both Damiano Dipopolo and Jones were kicked out in bad from the HAMC for stealing club funds. They stole from the collection trying to save 3 HA clubhouses in B.C. from forfeiture. <\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>$3.1m was raised and much was stolen. The Kelowna clubhouse was purchased by the city and leveled.<\/td>\n<td><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"191\" data-original-width=\"264\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEgaxo7z0xVwSjtb75sl9DFHcgV0dyl9d8Iruk28WS87JrWnyzf6hpWdvvSvJNhuwOBmRThtDWipNPTtZUObPseQ2kHP2KJ5FmEDKsQ5jowLacauOJX4wSv1jNEIhY652Gx1C2G5Mbv0Phv5ziVLYBUTXTACysv3EXJyLHhwCZ0mrkXoBrx5ofs8T5xf\/w320-h232\/download.png\" width=\"280\" \/><br \/>Dale Habib<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>The Sandhers are closely connected to the Habibs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Surrey slumlord Amit Chopra reached out to Kelowna mayoral candidate David Habib to help remove tenants from a drug house in 2022. Habib&#8217;s solution was simple, board the property up with the druggies inside. \u201cI\u2019ve always been as I like to say, \u2018in your corner,\u2019\u201d said Habib. He finished in third place in the October [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20535,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1141],"class_list":["post-20525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-david-habib"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Screenshot-2026-03-07-110135.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20525"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20542,"href":"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20525\/revisions\/20542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}