CKNW is reporting that the Vancouver Police have busted a Meth lab at the corner of West 7th and Yew in Kits. What’s happening to our hood?
While emergency crews continue to dismantle a meth lab found in Kitsilano Thursday morning, Vancouver Police are reporting they’re finding more drug dens in unexpected places.
Inspector Dean Robinson, who heads up the Drug Squad, says the latest discovery was in an apartment building near the corner of 7th and Yew, "Its always alarming if there’s a lab like a meth lab or a clandestine lab because they are volatile. Right now, they are on the rise, not in an epidemic capacity, but we have found more this year than we found last year and the year before that."
Firefighters were initially investigating reports of white smoke, but became suspicious when they were refused entry to the suite. A man and woman are facing charges.
photo by Ruth Hartnup: Blog & Flickr
Last modified: June 2, 2008
I am one of the tenants in the building, whom has been displaced by my LOVELY neighbour, Derek Taylor.
Taylor:
* known drug dealer
* criminal history from Ontario (drug dealing)
* has been living at 2225 W.7th Ave for 4½ years, much to the chagrin of other tenants.
* told FD members that he was “boiling potatos” yesterday morning.
He is a SLIMEBALL, whom should have been evicted long, long ago!
I was a long term tenant at another apartment building on W7th Ave, between Vine and Yew and always joked about the subject apartment building as “the crack house”. I met some great people living there and they had expressed concerns of some undesirable type residents when I mentioned my nickname for the structure.
I was since evicted by a new owner from my home on W7th for renovations to the building and increased the rent 60%.I miss the hood!
It is a great area to live in and 1 rotten apple should not taint the spirit of living in Kits! Building owners, it is in your best to do a back ground/criminal check! Your investment is at risk! Listen to your trusted tenants!
i am also a tenant here, lived right next door to derek.. i consistantly complained about the fact he was dealing etc out of the apt , finally had to move…landlords were well aware and turned a blind eye
I am also a tenant of the building and it’s not that the landlords turned a blind eye. They were working with undercover police to bust this lab for over 5 months and were doing everything the undercover policeman told them to.
RE: “They were working with undercover police to bust this lab for over 5 months and were doing everything the undercover policeman told them to.”
I’m sorry, but they were repeatedly told over the past 2½-3 years of Derek Taylor’s drug-dealing. Likewise, they were also told that Taylor had a history of criminal activity from Ontario. Five months of proactive cooperation is great, but Taylor’s “business” could have been cut short a LONG time ago had others’ information been regarded as seriously as it ought to have been!
When a tenant’s father heard Taylor doing a heroin & coke deal in the building’s alcove, the tenant’s father relayed the info. directly to the landlord … during the Holiday Season of 2004! If someone came to you, telling you of such a serious matter, and that person happened to be a former RCMP drug squad member, wouldn’t YOU sit-up and listen? A heroin & coke deal is just that. Not “just marijuana”!
Taylor performed major, ILLEGAL car repairs/restoration in the building’s alcove. It is ILLEGAL for such repairs to be done upon rental property. This occurred several times over the past 3 years: the mess, the exhaust fumes, the creepy factor of Taylor’s CONSTANT lurking in the alcove, blocking another tenant’s vehicle in many times, trekking motor oil onto the building’s carpets, noise, disturbing the sleep of tenants & the residents of OTHER neighbouring homes … he should have been turfed out on his ass a VERY, VERY long time ago! People complained, while others simply moved-out, as their complaints had no effect on the situation.
The landlords are GREAT, fantastic, kind people. I like them immensely, and am not attacking their character(s). However, Taylor’s mess & trouble could have been avoided had information & complaints from others been addressed from the get-go. For all the while that concerns weren’t addressed/swept under the carpet, A LOT of GOOD, DECENT PEOPLE COULD HAVE DIED because of scumbag Taylor’s dangerous “business”!!
Always nice to know that one’s neighbour kept a loaded .38, over $13,000 worth of meth, and toxic chemicals in his suite!
Call me Derek.
Z
He’s rolled through the system more than a couple of times since, getting slaps on the wrist.
Karma has now got him: he’s dying of congestive heart failure, at 41. “Darn”.
Society shall miss Derek.
Not. So. Much.
Z, holla at me!
wow, interesting…in jail now
I wonder what happened to his dog….
This is kind of an odd coincidence -I knew Derek briefly in 2005,and out of idle curiousity (dead,jail?) googled him yesterday and I found this.Also curious is the fact he was in court last week.
He’s the worst pathological liar I have met,and with his illusions of grandeur he was entertaining.
Some of the most outrageous lies I remember: his piece of crap BMW had 700 hp and he raced and beat Ferraris..he used to be a hacker and Microsoft paid him $1 million to stop hacking….he had anywhere from 3 to 20 pot grow houses and made between $20k and $200k a month…he was going to buy 2225 W 7th,knock it down and build a 20 story highrise because he knew a guy at City Hall he could bribe to get the permits…2 months previously he had brokered a cocaine deal and he made $500k,but on his desk from that morning was a letter from his landlord demanding 2 months rent he had not paid…the Hells Angels were going to pay him $700k to join their gang… etc etc.
It was all I could do to not burst out laughing at the BS,but I played along with “wowww…really!!!”
He also told me he had a pot-seed selling company,that he made $100k a month-I checked and he did have the seed company,but I don’t think he made any money.Marc Emery had that small market tied up.
I’m not the only one-I met a tennant one day in the lobby,asking Derek about something-when Derek left,he asked me when he was going to buy the building!
Anyways,one day I went to get a little pot for my back problem,and the place stank to high heaven,he was totally loaded and could see hard drugs on the table he’d been using. Pot is one thing,but the powder stuff is no dam good in any way so I never went back.
Criminal record search on him-and add onto this that he told me he did 3 years in a Seattle prison for getting caught with pot,around the year 2000. I checked at the time and he did.
29-Jun-1994 NCA – 4(2) Possess a narcotic for the purpose of trafficking
21-Dec-1995 CCC – 342(1)(c) Possess/use stolen credit card
26-Apr-1996 CCC – 342(1)(c) Possess/use stolen credit card
03-Mar-1996 CCC – 348(1)(b) Breaking and entering and committing theft
13-Oct-2006 CCC – 403(a) Personation with intent to gain advantage
18-May-2007 MVA – 95(1) Driving while prohibited/ licence suspended
LIMITED ACCESS Access Restricted
LIMITED ACCESS Access Restricted
30-Jan-2009 CCC – 145(3) Breach of undertaking or recognizance Commit BC
10-Mar-2009 MVA – 102(a) driving while prohibited Commit
022-Jun-2010 Application to mark bail for estreatment
25-Jun-2010 Bail Estreatment
The “limited acess” is in regards to the ongoing meth lab..and the recent stuff is him jumping bail/not showing up for his court dates/having his bail pulled and being jailed.
Looking at the law courts,he appeared last week and is set to appear in March,and there is 9 charges up on him. Seeing that time spent in jail waiting for trial is counted-afaik-at 3 times,the 2 months between last week and his March trial will count as 6 months against his sentence.
Plus whatever time he’s been in this winter…he may not spend much time in jail for the meth lab.
How much you want to bet that the March trial gets moved to later in the year???
Oh and Monster-I remember him telling me he had a heart attack,I thought it was just another lie.
FYI I looked on the online Criminal search…and there are zero records of any court date or meth lab charges.
Looks like old Derek did a deal and squeeled out his buddies,and is in witness protection.
Or maybe he had a heart attack and died?