North Vancouver mayoral candidate with criminal record facing new firearms charges

Last year, North Vancouver resident Oliver King ran unsuccessfully to become an Independent MP despite a criminal record for illegal firearms dealing in the U.S.

Now, he wants to be mayor of his city, despite facing new gun charges laid earlier this year.

King, 51, was charged in March after a joint investigation by Mission RCMP, North Vancouver RCMP and the Vancouver Police Department. A news release issued at the time said King was charged with 18 counts, while his co-accused, Elina Sarfallah, faced 16 firearms-related offences. Both were released on court-ordered conditions. Their next court appearance is scheduled in B.C. provincial court in North Vancouver on Nov. 13.

King agreed Wednesday evening to do an interview with Postmedia News about his candidacy and the new charges but was unreachable Thursday and didn’t respond to messages by deadline.

The new charges include several counts of possessing a prohibited or restricted firearm with ammunition, knowingly possessing a firearm without a licence and careless storage of a firearm. The offences are alleged to have occurred in both North Van and Vancouver on June 19, 2025.

When King appeared at a mayoral debate on Oct. 5, one of the organizers asked him about his 2011 U.S. convictions and why he had changed his name from Hamid Malekpour to Oliver King, according to The North Shore News. The newspaper reported that King, who was born in Iran, sidestepped the question but told the crowd that he wanted more representation from the Iranian community at city hall and to cut local government by getting rid of two-thirds of the city’s employees.

In another interview with The Ubyssey, King said he wanted to replace the North Van RCMP with a municipal police force.

Sarfallah was one of the people who signed his nomination papers for mayor, which were filed Sept. 2.

King left several sections of the nomination form blank, including listing his assets, liabilities, income and real property. According to the online court database, American Express filed a claim against him earlier this year over $9,600 he allegedly owes on a credit card. King hasn’t filed a response to the small-claims lawsuit.

King was convicted in Seattle of five counts in May 2011 including unlawful firearms dealing and lying to border agents. He was initially sentenced to almost six years in jail. But after he filed an appeal, one count was dropped and his sentence was reduced to 30 months.

His U.S. troubles began in February 2009 when he crossed the B.C. border into Washington state and gave “conflicting statements” for why he was in the U.S. He was sent for secondary inspection and more questions.

“By the end of the conversation, King was annoyed, accused the agents of racism and delaying him because he was born in Iran, and announced he no longer wished to enter the United States,” a government sentencing memo filed in 2011 said.

King, who changed his name in 2008, crossed the border 18 times over the subsequent 15 months “each time explaining he was coming to pick up consumer goods, his wife or her parents, or to check his mail at a border-town mail service, Hagen’s of Blaine (Wash.).” Surveillance showed “his activities were always at odds with his stated reason for entry. The three false statement convictions arise from false statements made by Mr. King at the border related to his purpose for entering the United States.”

He was arrested in Washington state on May 19, 2010. Police searched his vehicle and a storage locker and “recovered 21 high-end firearms, gun magazines … scopes and rounds of ammunition, along with his computer, cellular phone and miscellaneous documents, including two valid Canadian passports,” the 2011 prosecution sentencing memo said.

At King’s second sentencing hearing, his lawyer said he was merely a firearms collector and that there was “no indication he at any time transferred or agreed to sell any of these firearms to others.”