| | |  Americas & Beyond | October 2009 
Canadian Mom Claims Slain Son Cleared of Drug Activity
 Jason Hewlett - Daily News
go to original
October 15, 2009
| | Jeffrey Ivans (Facebook) | |
Kamloops – A Kamloops man who was gunned down in Puerto Vallarta last month has been cleared of any connection to the drug trade, his mother claimed earlier this week.
Carol Haughton said a family member spoke to staff at the Canadian Embassy in Mexico in the days following the murder of her son, Jeffrey Ivans, and friend Gordon Kendall. The family was told the embassy investigated the shooting and cleared Ivans any wrongdoing.
“Jeffrey was exonerated of having any ties to organized crime or the drug trade. That’s what the embassy said,” said Haughton, adding the authorities don’t know who is behind the shooting.
She did not provide any names of embassy officials.
Ivans and Kendall were shot to death outside a Puerto Vallarta condo Sept. 27.
Haughton maintained all along that her son was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She said he went to Mexico to work construction and had been there a week before the shooting occurred.
She intended to head to Mexico, claim her son’s body and question police about the incident. In the end, authorities sent Ivans’ ashes home. Kendall’s remains were also delivered to Kamloops.
Funerals were held for the men at the Cavalry Temple on Saturday. Haughton said more than 200 people attended her son’s service.
“They were both well loved. You bet,” she said. “These are boys who had families that loved them and friends.”
Haughton will now try to get her son’s pick-up truck and tools sent home, she said.
According to a news story published on a Puerto Vallarta newspaper’s web page after the shooting, Kendall and Ivans were “executed” by men looking to “settle accounts.” Mexican authorities have said the circumstances of the shooting suggest both men were targeted.
Ivans has a Canadian criminal record for drug offences. He was convicted in 2002 of possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking and fined $1,000.
A member of the RCMP’s Integrated Gang Task Force said at the time of the slayings that police in B.C knew Kendall and Ivans.
Sgt. Shinder Kirk said investigators were aware of the men’s recent activities in Mexico, which centred on the drug trade
|
|
| |
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us