An undercover police officer who discussed an international cocaine deal with Kelowna Hells Angel David Giles testified Tuesday that he never tried to steer Giles to specific answers during their 2012 conversations.

The officer, whose identity is shielded by a publication ban, continued his evidence on the second day of the trial between the Hells Angels and the B.C. director of civil forfeiture.

The government agency wants the Nanaimo, Kelowna and East Vancouver clubhouses of the biker gang forfeited on the basis that they would be used to commit crimes in the future.

The Hells Angels are fighting back with a countersuit seeking a declaration that the B.C. Civil Forfeiture Act is unconstitutional.

The trial got off to a slow start after lawyers for the Hells Angels challenged the admissibility of the 2012 recorded conversations, arguing they are hearsay evidence.

The intercepted conversations were part of a case that led to convictions against Giles, Hells Angel Bryan Oldham and several associates in 2016.

Giles died last year just months into a lengthy jail sentence.

The officer, who posed as a South American drug lord during four meetings with Giles, described the biker showing his Hells Angels tattoos and reassuring the cop that his “brothers” in the gang had his back in the deal.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Barry Davies will hear submissions Wednesday on whether or not to admit the evidence.

Hells Angel lawyer Greg DelBigio questioned the officer about his role in the earlier investigation.

“One of the issues you need to pay attention to is whether or not the target you are dealing with is simply lying to you, right?” DelBigio asked.

The cop responded that he is deliberately not provided with other details of the investigation so he can’t assess the truth of the target’s answers. He simply passed his information about what was said to the officer in charge of the undercover operation, he explained.

“If, for example, you were steering too hard and Mr. Giles lied to you, that is something you can’t comment on one way of the other?” DelBigio asked.

The officer replied: “Again, I was not trying to steer him.”

He said he would try to push a certain “topic of conversation” but did not try to elicit specific answers.

The officer said that Giles also admitted to having previously imported cocaine from South America to Canada, including a 2001 shipment of 2.5 tonnes on a fishing boat called the Western Wind that was seized by the U.S. Coast Guard.

Brent Olthuis, a lawyer representing the B.C. government, also tried Tuesday to get the ruling that convicted Giles admitted as evidence in the case.

But the Hells Angels lawyers said it would be improper to do so.

In the earlier ruling, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Carol Ross cited Giles’ conversations with the purported drug lord, which took place in Panama.

Giles described himself as the “consigliere” of his co-accused, Kevin Van Kalkeren.

“Mr. Giles discussed his history in the Hells Angels and some aspects of the club in relation to the criminal activities of members. He said that any business on the side, like the stuff they were talking about, had to be brought to three people in his room,” Ross noted.

The civil trial continues.

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The Canadian government has appealed an immigration order allowing convicted B.C. gunman Aram Ali out of jail pending the gang associate’s deportation to his native Iraq.

Last Friday, Immigration and Refugee Board member Laura Ko said she believed Ali should be allowed to stay with his family in Calgary until he is removed from the country for serious criminality.

She ordered the 33-year-old United Nations gang associate released on $5,000 bail and a number of conditions.

But a lawyer for the federal Public Safety Minister went to the Federal Court of Canada later the same day, asking for a stay of Ko’s order “on an urgent basis.”

Government lawyer Brenda Ward said Ko erred by not adequately considering an earlier IRB ruling from March which found that Ali “was a danger to the public.”

“The minister will be irreparably harmed if the respondent is released from detention,” Ward said in court documents obtained by Postmedia.

Federal Court Judge Patrick Gleeson granted an emergency stay of Ko’s order. But the Federal Court will hear full arguments from Ali’s lawyer and the government at a hearing Thursday morning.

Ali was convicted of shooting up a rival’s Range Rover outside Surrey’s T-Barz strip club in February 2009. The vehicle’s driver was struck, but the target of the shooting, Independent Soldier Tyler Willock, escaped injury.

Bullet holes in Range Rover where intended targets of gangland shooting were sitting. Members of Lower Mainland Police Service announce the arrest of UN Gang members, including leader, Barzan Tilli-Choli, 27. They face counts of attempting to kill Fraser Sutherland, 40, and Tyler Willock, 27, as they sat in a black Range Rover.

Ali testified that he did the shooting for his friend, high-ranking UN gangster Barzan Tilli-Choli. At the time, Ali was on bail on a drug trafficking charge.

Gangster Barzan Tilli-Choli.

Postmedia obtained a copy of the March IRB ruling declaring Ali too dangerous to remain in the country. It’s signed by a “senior decision maker” identified only as C5869.

“After fully considering all the facts of this case, including the humanitarian aspects, and an assessment of the possible risks that Mr. Ali might face if returned to Iraq and the need to protect Canadian society, I find that the latter outweighs the former,” C5869 said.

Ali was sentenced in December 2015 to eight and a half years, but netted three and a half years after credit for his pretrial custody. Earlier this month, he reached his statutory release and was turned over to the Canada Border Services Agency.

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The IRB decision maker noted that it was only luck that prevented more people from being injured or killed when Ali opened fire outside the busy strip club.

“The circumstances of Mr. Ali’s most recent offence are chilling,” C5869 said in their 21-page ruling.  

“Called upon by a known leader of the UN gang in Vancouver, Mr. Ali left his apartment and his girlfriend to travel with this gang member to a strip club with the sole intent of harming an individual. The court described him as a mercenary.”

C5869 said Ali put “at risk members of the public and innocent persons who were in the company of the target.”

“As a young adult, Mr. Ali chose to associate with a criminal gang that already had a reputation for violence. He chose to traffic in drugs in order to make fast and easy money.”

Ali, who is from a Kurdish family, left Iraq as an infant and lived in a Syrian refugee camp for years before getting refugee status in Canada in 2000.

His lawyer Veen Aldosky said earlier that she would appeal the March ruling declaring her client a danger. She argued that Ali has matured since his involvement in the gang shooting and disassociated himself with the gang culture while in prison.

And he took courses to upgrade his education and improve himself.

Ali wrote to the CBSA in 2016 and said: “I’m embarrassed and ashamed of my wrong doings.”

“I understand what I’ve done is outrageous and irresponsible,” he wrote. “I put other people’s lives in danger and I have to live with that.”

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B.C. Supreme Court Justice Barry Davies sided with lawyers for the Hells Angels Wednesday in ruling that comments back in 2012 that Angel David Giles made to undercover officers should not be admitted as evidence the civil forfeiture case against the biker gang.

Davies said that the judge that convicted Giles acknowledged he might have been lying in the recorded conversations when he talked of his gang brothers to undercover police.

Giles was convicted on a series of charges and sentenced in January 2017, only to die in custody a few months later. Despite his former leadership role in the Kelowna Chapter of the Hells Angels, he is not a party in the B.C. government suit against the bikers aiming to get forfeiture of three of their clubhouses.

Here’s my earlier story:

Homicide investigators want the public to help them determine what Surrey’s most recent murder victim was doing in the hours before he was killed.

Integrated Homicide Investigation Team Cpl. Frank Jang said Delta resident Amin Vinepal, 24, was found about 3:30 p.m. Thursday on the side of the road in the 17800-block of 12^th Avenue. 

Soon after Vinepal’s body was found, Surrey RCMP received a call about a burning vehicle in the 18700-block of 28^th Avenue.  

“Investigators believe this vehicle may be related to the homicide and anyone with information about this vehicle is asked to contact the police,” Jang said in a news release.

“IHIT is releasing Mr. Vinepal’s name in an effort to determine his activities and who he may have had contact with prior to his death.  Mr. Vinepal was known to police and associated to gang activity.  Investigators believe Mr. Vinepal’s murder was targeted and linked to other gang violence in the Lower Mainland.”

He urged anyone with information about Vinepal or the murder to contact IHIT at at 1-877-551-4448 or ihitinfo@rcmp-grc.gc.ca. 

KELOWNA — Three gangsters stood up in B.C. Supreme Court here today and admitted their involvement in the 2011 plot to kill rival Red Scorpion Jonathan Bacon and his associates.

Jason Thomas McBride told Justice Allan Betton he was guilty of second-degree murder and attempted murder for fatally shooting Bacon and wounding four others when he opened fire on their Porsche Cayenne just after 2:30 p.m. on Aug. 14, 2011.

Michael Kerry Hunter Jones pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder for driving McBride and two other killers to the Delta Grand Hotel that day. And Jujhar Singh Khun-Khun also admitted he conspired for two and a half months to murder Bacon, Hells Angel Larry Amero and Independent Solider James Riach.

Lawyers for the trio struck a plea deal after weeks of negotiations with prosecutors. As a result, first-degree murder charges they had been facing since their arrest in 2013 were dropped and the new indictment with lesser charges was sworn.

Crown David Ruse told Betton there was also a joint prosecutor-defence submission on sentencing. Under the agreement, which Betton must still approve, McBride would receive a life sentence with no parole eligibility for 18 years, minus credit for five years in pre-trial custody.

Khun-Khun and Jones would also get 18 years minus credit for time served for a net sentence of about 10 years.

Lawyers for the accused, as well as Ruse, made their submissions under tight security at the Kelowna Law Courts this morning.

Betton then adjourned the proceedings until Wednesday morning when he will issue his ruling.

Jujhar Khun-Khun (left); who’s been charged with the death of Jonathan Bacon in a turf war over drugs. Sukh Dhak is on the right.

The brazen summertime shooting by masked gunmen outside the Delta Grand Hotel shook this resort community.

Wounded in the vehicle were Hells Angel Larry Amero, who was driving, and passengers Leah Hadden-Watts and Lyndsey Black. Independent Soldier James Riach jumped out as the shooting started and escaped injury. 

Hells Angel Larry Ronald Amero in file photo

The late Sukh Dhak, who was gunned down a year later, is named as a co-conspirator in the new indictment.

The trial of the three gangsters began in Kelowna on May 29, 2017, and continued on and off until October, before being adjourned to sort out disclosure issues.

Ruse laid out the expected evidence in his opening statement almost a year ago. He said that DNA of all three accused was found on hoodies and a ball cap discarded after the murder.

And he said that former gangsters-turned Crown witnesses would testify that all three accused were part of the team hunting Amero, Bacon and Riach because Dhak believed the trio was behind the murder of his brother Gurmit in Burnaby in October 2010.

Ruse said that Khun-Khun, McBride, Jones and a fourth man, Manny Hairan, arrived in Kelowna early on the morning of Aug. 14 to kill Amero and his friends after they had been spotted partying in the lakeside resort town.

The group searched for its targets in bars and biker clubhouses, before walking along the scenic waterfront behind the Delta Grand where Amero and his party were staying.

They knew they had found their prey when McBride recognized Amero’s boat — Steroids and Silicone — tied up behind the hotel.

 The shooting, carried out by masked gunmen, was captured on grainy hotel security played during the trial.

Kelowna residents and visitors who were enjoying the sunny Sunday afternoon recounted on the stand how shocked and frightened they were when the gunfire began.

Paramedics tend to victim Larry Amero at the scene of Jonathan Bacon’s murder.

Bacon was the eldest of a trio of Abbotsford gangsters who got involved in the drug trade at a young age and later joined the notorious Red Scorpion gang. Younger brother Jarrod is serving a 14-year sentence for cocaine trafficking. Youngest brother Jamie remains in pre-trial custody on a charge of counselling to commit murder. Last December, murder and conspiracy charges Jamie had been facing in the  2007 Surrey Six slayings were stayed.

At the time of Bacon’s murder, he had formed a gang alliance called the Wolfpack with some Hells Angels and some Independent Soldiers.

Earlier this year, Riach was sentenced to life in jail in the Philippines for trafficking drugs there. And Amero was charged in Vancouver in January with conspiracy to kill Dhak, as well as gangster Sandip Duhre, who died months apart in targeted 2012 shootings.

Neither Riach nor Amero were called as witnesses in the Kelowna trial.

After the Bacon murder, anti-gang police issued repeated public warnings that anyone connected to the Dhak-Duhre group could be targeted in retaliation.

They were right.

A few months later, Duhre was shot to death in the lobby of the Sheraton Wall Centre in downtown Vancouver. The violent conflict continued and in November 2012, Dhak and his bodyguard Thomas Mantel were gunned down outside a Burnaby hotel.

Several associates on either side of the conflict were also murdered in cases that remain unsolved.

Both Khun-Khun and Hones have been identified other trials as a suspects in two separate Lower Mainland murders.

More to come.

kbolan@postmedia.com 

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan 

The new charges in the case are:

Count 1/Chef 1:

That on or about the 14(th), day of August, 2011, at or near Kelowna, in the Province of British Columbia, Jason Thomas MCBRIDE did commit the second degree murder of Jonathan Bacon, contrary to Section 235(1) of the Criminal Code.

Count 2/Chef 2:

That on or about the 14(th), day of August, 2011, at or near Kelowna, in the Province of British Columbia, while using a prohibited firearm, Jason Thomas MCBRIDE did attempt to commit the murder of Larry Amero, James Riach, Leah Hadden-Watts and Lyndsey Black, by discharging that firearm at Larry Amero, James Riach, Leah Hadden-Watts and Lyndsey Black, contrary to Section 239(1)(a) of the Criminal Code.

Count 3/Chef 3:

That between the 1(st) day of June, 2011 and the 14(th) day of August, 2011, both dates inclusive, at or near Vancouver, Coquitlam, Kelowna, and elsewhere in the Province of British Columbia, Michael Kerry Hunter JONES and Jujhar KHUN-KHUN did conspire together, and with Jason McBride, Suhkveer Dhak, and others to commit the murder of Larry Amero, James Riach and Jonanthan Bacon, contrary to Section 465(1)(a) of the Criminal Code.

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We will learn Wednesday morning whether B.C. Supreme Court Justice Allan Betton will accept a joint sentencing submission for three gangsters who’ve admitted a role in the 2011 Jonathan Bacon murder case.

Crown and defence lawyers for Jason McBride, Jujhar Khun-Khun and Michael Jones were in negotiations for weeks on how to bring the long-running prosecution to a close. The accused agreed to plead guilty to lesser charges – McBride to second-degree murder and attempted murder, while Jones and Khun-Khun have admitted their conspired to kill Bacon, Hells Angel Larry Amero and Independent Soldier James Riach.

The joint sentence recommendation is that McBride serve 18 years (minus 5 years pre-trial credit) before being eligible for parole on his life sentence, while Jones and Khun-Khun would get 18 years for the conspiracy minus pre-trial credit at a rate of 1.5 days for every day served for a net sentence each of about 10 years.

Here’s my full story:

 

KELOWNA — Three men who brought gangland terror to downtown Kelowna pleaded guilty Tuesday for their roles in the brazen 2011 execution of Red Scorpion boss Jonathan Bacon.

Prosecutor David Ruse said the retaliatory attack targeting Bacon, Hells Angel Larry Amero and Independent Soldier James Riach was made worse by where and how it happened — in front of the Delta Grand Hotel around 2:30 p.m. on Aug. 14, 2011.

“It is difficult to imagine a more public place to attempt this murder than the entranceway of a large resort hotel in a tourist city in the middle of summer on a sunny Sunday day,” Ruse told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Allan Betton.

Ruse described how Jason McBride, Michael Jones and Jujhar Khun-Khun hunted their rivals for more than two months, pulling together crews of hitmen on a moment’s notice after getting encrypted messages about the possible whereabouts of their targets.

The driving force behind the murder plot was the late Sukh Dhak. He believed Bacon, Amero and Riach were responsible for the murder of his gangster brother Gurmit, gunned down in front of his family outside of Burnaby’s Metrotown Mall in October 2010.

“Sukh Dhak and other members of the Dhak group, came to believe that rival drug traffickers Larry Amero, James Riach and Jonathan Bacon, collectively known as the Wolf Pack, were responsible for the murder of Gurmit Dhak,” Ruse said. “As a result, members of the Dhak group sought to retaliate against the Wolf Pack and their associates.”

McBride was a close associate of Gurmit Dhak. Jones was McBride’s friend. Khun-Khun was a close ally of Sukh Dhak, Ruse said.

All three had originally been charged in 2013 with first-degree murder. After weeks of negotiations between Crown and their lawyers, a deal was struck for each to plead guilty to lesser charges.

 

Standing in the prisoner’s box Tuesday, McBride admitted he was guilty of second-degree murder and attempted murder for fatally shooting Bacon and wounding four others when he opened fire on their Porsche Cayenne.

Jones pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder for driving McBride and two other killers to the Delta Grand Hotel that day. And Khun-Khun also admitted he conspired from June 1 to Aug. 14, 2011 to kill Bacon, Amero and Riach.

Ruse told Betton there was also a joint prosecutor-defence submission on sentencing. Under the agreement, which Betton must still approve, McBride would receive a life sentence with no parole eligibility for 18 years, minus credit for five years in pre-trial custody. Khun-Khun and Jones would also get 18 years minus credit for time served for a net sentence of about 10 years.

Betton adjourned the proceedings until Wednesday morning when he will hand down the sentences.

There was extra security at the Kelowna Law Courts for Tuesday’s proceedings. Anti-gang police with a sniffer dog checked bushes and garbage cans outside the building. There were extra sheriffs both outside and inside.

Outside court, Crown spokesman Dan McLaughlin said the “plea resolution arrived at today reflects a frank and a thorough analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the case.”

He said the Crown recognized there were credibility issues with some of the witnesses who were previous associates of the accused. And the Crown was also concerned “with the ongoing delay in this case,” McLaughlin said.

“The resolution today brings a certainty and finality to the proceedings,” he said.

Ruse read a lengthy agreed statement of facts laying out the events both before and after the shooting.

He said Khun-Khun went out hunting “on approximately 30 to 40 occasions to locations primarily in Vancouver and Coquitlam in an effort to locate the targets.”

He went past places he believed Amero, Bacon and Riach were staying. He checked out nightclubs, bars and restaurants. He collected vehicle descriptions and plate numbers, Ruse said.

“The stalking and intelligence gathering was undertaken knowing that the information obtained would likely be used to determine the optimal time and place for the ambush and killing of one or all of the targets,” Ruse said.

Both McBride and Jones travelled to the Okanagan weeks before the shooting, in an unsuccessful bid to kill Amero and Riach, “who they had reason to believe were visiting the City of Kelowna.”

But they got lucky on night of Aug. 13 when Sukh Dhak got an encrypted message that the three were in Kelowna staying at the Delta Grand Hotel.

About 11 p.m., McBride and Jones left Vancouver for the Okanagan. They got into town just before 4 a.m. and parked across from the hotel’s main entrance.

Khun-Khun also left the Lower Mainland for Kelowna, traveling with Manjinder Hairan — one of the shooters who was later killed before he was charged in the Bacon murder.

Sukh Dhak was in communication with several other associates in the wee hours of Aug. 14. Several of them ended up cooperating with the Crown. Their names are covered by a publication ban.

The Dhak hunters checked pubs, nightclubs and biker clubhouses before spotting Amero’s boat — named Steroids and Silicone — moored behind the Delta Grand. It was about 4 a.m. They knew they were closing in on their targets.

The hunters split into two groups and went to sleep for a few hours before meeting up the next morning and resuming their post near the hotel.

Amero, Bacon, Riach and two women with them — Leah Hadden-Watts and Lyndsey Black — checked out of the hotel about 12:20 p.m. to go for a short boat ride. The valet parked the Porsche in front of the hotel and loaded up the group’s luggage.

“At approximately 2:37 p.m., the Amero party began boarding the Porsche Cayenne,” Ruse said.

Amero was driving, Bacon was in the front passenger’s seat, Riach was behind Amero, with Hadden-Watts in the rear middle and Black behind Bacon.

A minute later, a Ford Explorer driven by Jones entered the hotel driveway and parked near the Cayenne, Ruse said.

Someone in the rear started firing an assault rifle at the Amero vehicle. McBride and Hairan — both with their faces covered — jumped out of the Explorer and continued to shoot.

Ruse showed the surveillance video of the terrifying scene, with people nearby scrambling for cover. Bacon could be seen falling out of the vehicle, as Riach jumped out his side.

Amero’s right arm was paralyzed. Hadden-Watts was hit in the neck and paralyzed. Black was also struck. Riach escaped injury.

“Pay attention to the number of bystanders that are present. This is not an unusual circumstance for this hotel on a sunny Sunday day. There are people arriving, leaving. There are employees, valet staff, taxis arriving with individuals. There are people walking their dogs. There are people walking by,” Ruse said.

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KELOWNA — Three gangsters who admitted their roles in the 2011 murder plot that left Jonathan Bacon dead and three others wounded were handed lengthy prison terms in B.C. Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Justice Allan Betton accepted a joint-sentencing submission from Crown and defence lawyers for Jason McBride, Jujhar Khun-Khun and Michael Jones.

McBride pleaded guilty Tuesday to second-degree murder and attempted murder, admitting he blasted an AK-47-like automatic rifle at Bacon and others in a Porsche Cayenne outside the Delta Grand hotel on a sunny afternoon in August 2011. Betton sentenced McBride to life in prison with no eligibility for parole for 18 years.

Jones and Khun-Khun each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder — Jones for driving the killers to the execution and Khun-Khun for being part of the hunt. Each was sentenced to 18 years, with a net term of 10 years after credit for pretrial custody.

Betton said both Jones and Khun-Khun should serve at least half their remaining sentence because of “the peculiar and egregious nature of these matters (and) the prolonged element of the conspiracy.”

“This was a planned and calculated attack with magnificent risk to innocent persons,” Betton said.

Normally inmates can apply for parole at the one-third mark of their sentence.

Jujhar Khun-Khun, left, was charged with the death of Jonathan Bacon in a turf war over drugs. Sukh Dhak is on the right.

Betton said the brazen gangland shooting in a crowded downtown area “shocked the community.”

“That area, as could be expected, was busy with people at and around the hotel going about their business,” he told a packed, high-security courtroom.

Wounded in the attack was Hells Angel Larry Amero and back-seat passengers Leah Hadden-Watts and Lyndsay Black. Independent Soldier James Riach jumped out of the Porsche as the shooting began and escaped injury.

Betton noted the gangster victims, who had formed the Wolf Pack coalition, “had become targets of retaliation for the shooting death of Gurmit Dhak” in October 2010.

Dhak’s brother Sukh plotted revenge, calling on McBride, Jones, Khun-Khun and other allies and associates to help in the hunt.

Hells Angel Larry Ronald Amero in a file photo.

Sukh Dhak was later murdered in November 2012. Amero is now charged with conspiracy to kill the younger Dhak brother.

When Sukh Dhak and his hit men learned on Aug. 13, 2011, that his Wolf Pack rivals were in Kelowna, “the conspiracy that had been ongoing was then fine-tuned and led to the critical events that occurred just after 2:30 p.m. on Aug. 14,” Betton said.

“That no one else was injured or killed — but for it being true — would seem unbelievable.”

Forty-five expended cartridges were recovered outside the Delta Grand. There were 34 bullet holes in the Porsche. One 9mm bullet hit the window of the Kelowna Art Gallery across the street and another went through a wall and into a hair salon.

Betton said the joint-sentencing submissions adequately addressed the nature of the crime and some of the challenges that the Crown had with the case — a series of unsavoury co-operating witnesses and former associates of the accused, and months of delays in the proceedings related to disclosure issues.

“I do accept the joint submissions. In my view, reasonable and informed persons aware of all the relevant circumstances could not see the joint submission as reflecting a breakdown in the proper functioning in the justice system,” Betton said. “It has been a highly complex and difficult case with many challenges and there are significant reasons for uncertainly as to what the ultimate outcome would have been had it not been for these … pleas that have been entered.”

All three men stood as Betton delivered their fate. They then shook hands with their lawyers before being led away by sheriffs.

Outside the courthouse, Sgt. Brenda Winpenny of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit said hundreds of officers from the anti-gang agency have been involved in the investigation, dubbed E-Nitrogen.  

Supt. Brent Mundle, officer in charge of the Kelowna RCMP, addresses reporters outside the Kelowna courthouse on May 2 about sentencing in the Jonathan Bacon murder case. Sgt. Brenda Winpenny of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit is at right.

The policing costs top $9 million, she told reporters.

“The outcome of today is a successful prosecution,” Winpenny said. “These investigations are very complex and very involved.”

Supt. Brent Mundle, who heads the Kelowna RCMP, said the “brazen daytime shooting was directly related to organized crime.”

“While thankfully rare, I recognize that these violent and public crimes can have a dramatic impact on the people who live, work in and visit our communities,” Mundle said.

He said he hoped the sentencing “will provide closure to those who may still be affected by these events.”

CFSEU chief officer Kevin Hackett said the convictions and long sentences should “serve as a reminder to those involved in perpetrating gang violence that we will be relentless and resolute as we help bring those individuals who threaten our communities with gun violence to account.”

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Related

• Watch the gripping surveillance video showing the brazen shooting of Jonathan Bacon
• Guilty pleas in 2011 gangland shooting that shook Kelowna

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Two men with gang links who were beaten while awaiting trials in a Metro Vancouver jails has been awarded almost $3.5 million by the B.C. government to settle their lawsuits.

Independent Soldier associate Jesse Margison was given a $3 million settlement after suffering severe brain damage when another inmate at the North Fraser Pretrial jail stomped on his head in August 2012.

At the time, he was facing kidnapping charges with several others but was found unfit to stand trial after the beating, which left him in a coma for several weeks.

Margison’s lawyers filed a civil suit seeking damages to cover the cost of his on-going care. They argued that jail staff should have been aware of the threats Margison was facing from rival gangsters and taken steps to protect him. 

And Allen Ogonoski, a former gang member of Surrey Thugs Inc., was awarded $496,600 for the brain injury he suffered after being attacked in Surrey Pretrial by a rival gangster on Aug. 15, 2011

His suit against the B.C. government alleged that he “was intentionally assaulted and battered” by another prisoner named Chris Fulmer with connections to the Red Scorpion gang and that the jail officials were negligent by not recognizing that he was incompatible with the Scorpion.

Both inmate lawsuits were settled in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017. Some details of the agreements were contained an annual government report titled “Payments under the Crown Proceeding Act,” which was tabled last week.

In Margison’s case, the report said: “the plaintiff claims the province is liable for damages the plaintiff suffered when assaulted by Leonard Cardinal on or about Aug. 12, 2012.

“He claims that in not preventing the assault, the province was negligent and/or breached his rights under section 7 and section 12 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” it said.

And in both of the cases, the report said that a government lawyer advised that “the plaintiff might have a successful claim” and “that it is in the public interest to settle the claim.”

Lawyers for the two injured men could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Because of his brain injury, Margison was unable to assist his lawyers in piecing together the events that led up to assault. They had filed several motions in B.C. Supreme Court to try to get North Fraser records related to gang inmates.

Cardinal pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in the attack, telling a Surrey provincial court judge that he had heard Margison was going to beat him so launched a pre-emptive strike. The judge didn’t buy his explanation and noted the horrendous injuries that Margison suffered.

Margison’s lawyers later learned their client had been visited at North Fraser in May 2012 by police to warn him that the Hells Angels wanted him dead.

And they determined that Cardinal had been in contact with a jailed Hells Angel just the day before the attack.

Margison’s close associate and former co-accused Troy McKinnon, who was convicted in the kidnapping case, was shot to death in a gangland hit in Nanaimo in January.

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A former Hells Angel testified Thursday that members of the biker club would discuss some of their criminal activities at the Toronto clubhouse, but only after the business of their formal meetings was done.

But David Atwell also agreed with a lawyer for the Hells Angels that there were rules against such discussions, even though they did occur.

Lawyer Joe Arvay suggested the Angels ran their weekly “church” meetings in a similar fashion to the Boy Scouts.

“There was no criminal activity ever discussed at a church meeting. Isn’t that true?” Arvay asked.

“No, that’s not true,” said Atwell, who testified via video link from an undisclosed location.

“You are right in the first part — that there’s a rule you shouldn’t talk about it. But criminal activity would get leaked to a meeting.”

Atwell, a former police agent who spent his six years as a Hells Angel, is testifying at the civil forfeiture trial between the bikers and the B.C. government.

The director of civil forfeiture agreed to pay the former sergeant-at-arms of the Toronto chapter $75,000 for his evidence. The B.C. government is trying to get three clubhouses in East Vancouver, Kelowna and Nanaimo forfeited alleging that if the Hells Angels continue to own them, the buildings will be used for criminal activity.

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Atwell has been given a new name and is in the Witness Protection Program after testifying in several Ontario criminal cases targeting the Hells Angels.

Under cross-examination Thursday, Arvay asked Atwell about several passages attributed to him in the book The Hard Way Out: My Life with the Hells Angels and Why I Turned Against Them, by Jerry Langton.

Arvay suggested the passages contradicted evidence Atwell had given this week in B.C. Supreme Court.

“Nothing illegal was discussed, just club business. It’s not illegal to be a Hells Angel and we all wanted to keep it that way,” Arvay read from the book.

“We never did any business in the clubhouse … because we knew that anybody could be listening there.”

Asked Arvay: “Does that accurately describe your views?”

Atwell suggested Langton had attributed things to him that he had never said.

“Yes things that were illegal were discussed in the clubhouse,” Atwell said.

“Almost all of my or most of my drug purchases as an agent originated in the clubhouse.”

But Atwell agreed with Arvay that members of the Hells Angels or those aspiring to join the biker gang were not forced to participate in criminal activities. Some of his former Hells Angels friends had legitimate jobs, Atwell agreed.

He also agreed that a Hells Angel could get kicked out of the group if caught committing a crime in a clubhouse.

“There was also a rule that you couldn’t commit crimes with your Hells Angels crests or patches or rings on because it would look bad toward the brand — the brand the Hells Angels, which was protected by the Hells Angels,” Atwell told Justice Barry Davies.

Atwell completed his evidence, but a second former Hells Angel is expected to testify Friday.

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David Atwell, a former Hells Angel who testified against Toronto gang members several years ago, has been giving evidence this week for the B.C. director of civil forfeiture in his attempt to get three biker clubhouses in this province forfeited.

My colleague covered the first two days of Atwell’s evidence. Here are his stories:

• Former Hells Angel testifies at clubhouse forfeiture trial
• Former HA denies $500,000 payment was behind him becoming agent

I was in court today for his second day of Attwell’s cross-examination. It was a weird set-up. He was on a video link from an undisclosed location. Then there are screens blocking those monitors from those of us in the public gallery as he lives in witness protection.

Here’s my story:

Jesse Margison was a well-known young gangster with a violent history when he was attacked in North Fraser Pretrial in 2012. The injuries he suffered were so severe that he has permanent brain damage and will never be able to care for himself. His lawyers filed a lawsuit against the B.C. government.

I learned today that his suit was settled last year with a payout of $3 million, as was another case of a jailhouse beating that I wrote about in 2015. 

Here’s my latest:

Two men with gang links who were beaten while awaiting trials in Metro Vancouver jails have been awarded a total of almost $3.5 million by the B.C. government to settle their lawsuits.

Independent Soldier associate Jesse Margison was given a $3-million settlement after suffering severe brain damage when another inmate at the North Fraser Pretrial Centre stomped on his head in August 2012.

At the time, he was facing kidnapping charges with several others, but was found unfit to stand trial after the beating, which left him in a coma for several weeks.

Margison’s lawyers filed a civil suit seeking damages to cover the cost of his ongoing care. They argued that jail staff should have been aware of the threats Margison was facing from rival gangsters and taken steps to protect him. 

And Allen Ogonoski, a former gang member of Surrey Thugs Inc., was awarded $496,600 for the brain injury he suffered after being attacked in Surrey Pretrial by a rival gangster on Aug. 15, 2011.

His suit against the B.C. government alleged that he “was intentionally assaulted and battered” by another prisoner named Chris Fulmer with connections to the Red Scorpion gang, and that jail officials were negligent by not recognizing that he was incompatible with the Scorpion.

Both lawsuits were settled in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017. Some details of the agreements were contained in an annual government report titled “Payments under the Crown Proceeding Act,” which was tabled last week.

In Margison’s case, the report said: “The plaintiff claims the province is liable for damages the plaintiff suffered when assaulted by Leonard Cardinal on or about Aug. 12, 2012.

“He claims that in not preventing the assault, the province was negligent and/or breached his rights under section 7 and section 12 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”

And in both of the cases, the report said that a government lawyer advised that “the plaintiff might have a successful claim” and “that it is in the public interest to settle the claim.”

Lawyers for the two injured men could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Because of his brain injury, Margison was unable to assist his lawyers in piecing together the events that led up to the assault. They had filed several motions in B.C. Supreme Court to try to get North Fraser records related to gang inmates.

Cardinal pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in the attack, telling a Surrey provincial court judge that he had heard Margison was going to beat him so launched a pre-emptive strike. The judge didn’t buy his explanation, and noted the horrendous injuries that Margison suffered.

Margison’s lawyers later learned their client had been visited at North Fraser in May 2012 by police to warn him that the Hells Angels wanted him dead.

And they determined that Cardinal had been in contact with a jailed Hells Angel just a day before the attack.

Margison’s close associate and former co-accused Troy McKinnon, who was convicted in the kidnapping case, was shot to death in a gangland hit in Nanaimo in January.

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A founding member of the Nanaimo Hells Angels suggested Friday that he had been unfairly convicted in an extortion case because of his membership in the notorious biker club.

Robert “Fred” Widdifield was brought from prison as a witness in the civil trial to determine if three Hells Angels clubhouses in east Vancouver, Nanaimo and Kelowna should be forfeited to the B.C. government.

When asked by government lawyer Brent Olthuis if he had a criminal record, Widdifield said: “I was convicted on a hearsay rule and I was given five years for being a Hells Angel.”

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Barry Davies declared Widdifield an adverse witness in part because of his hostile demeanour on the stand.

Davies also referred to a pretrial interview Widdifield did with a lawyer for the civil forfeiture office in which he claimed the Nanaimo clubhouse had been “stolen” from the Hells Angels when it was seized in November 2007.

Widdifield “retired” from the Hells Angels in June 2014, something referenced in an affidavit his lawyer filed last summer as part of his appeal in the extortion case.

He lost that appeal of his extortion sentence in February.

Olthuis suggested the affidavit was an attempt by Widdifield to distance himself from the Hells Angels to improve his chances on appeal and to show that “any influence the club may have had on you was no longer an issue. Is that fair?”

Replied Widdifield: “I don’t know how you want to spin this thing. But what the hell are you trying to say?”

Davies intervened and told the retired biker to answer the question.

Widdifield admitted Friday that he has occasionally socialized with current Nanaimo Hells Angels despite swearing in his affidavit that he doesn’t maintain contact with any of them.

Asked Othuis: “In what sort of setting would you see them?”

Replied Widdifield: “At a restaurant or at a bar maybe. … I may have lunch with one or two of them.”

He also admitted that he had attended the house the chapter is now using for its meetings “maybe once or twice.”

Asked about the conflicting information in his affidavit, Widdifield testified: “I guess I lied about that.”

Olthuis asked Widdifield if he retired from the Hells Angels “based on any concern for the influence the chapter had on your life.”

“No,” Widdifield said. “I was 62 years old. I had been doing it for 40 years — since I was 23 years old. It was time to retire.”

Hells Angels lawyer Greg DelBigio asked Widdifield if he socialized with Nanaimo bikers after his retirement because they were Hells Angels or because they were old friends.

They had been his friends for decades, he said.

“Nanaimo is a pretty small place,” Widdifield said. “You can bump into people at different places. … Some people I have known since I was six years old.”

Earlier Friday, Olthuis read parts of Widdifield’s earlier pretrial interview with government lawyers.

Widdifield described joining the Satan Angels motorcycle club in 1978 and then being part of the “patch-over” to the Hells Angels in 1983.

He agreed that he was once a director of the company that owns the Nanaimo clubhouse property and had been a party in the government’s lawsuit against the Hells Angels.

And he alleged the police might have stolen a computer from the clubhouse “when you raided the place” in November 2007.

The trial continues next week.

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Fred Widdifield was clearly not happy to be brought from prison to testify for the Director of Civil Forfeiture in its case against his former biker gang.

He had a few testy exchanges with Brent Olthuis who was questioning Widdifield about the decades he spent as a member of the Nanaimo Hells Angels – one of three defendants in the director’s bid to get three clubhouses forfeited.

Here’s my story:

A founding member of the Nanaimo Hells Angels suggested Friday that he had been unfairly convicted in an extortion case because of his membership in the notorious biker club.

Robert “Fred” Widdifield was brought from prison as a witness in the civil trial to determine if three Hells Angels clubhouses in east Vancouver, Nanaimo and Kelowna should be forfeited to the B.C. government.

When asked by government lawyer Brent Olthuis if he had a criminal record, Widdifield said: “I was convicted on a hearsay rule and I was given five years for being a Hells Angel.”

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Barry Davies declared Widdifield an adverse witness in part because of his hostile demeanour on the stand.

Davies also referred to a pretrial interview Widdifield did with a lawyer for the civil forfeiture office in which he claimed the Nanaimo clubhouse had been “stolen” from the Hells Angels when it was seized in November 2007.

Widdifield “retired” from the Hells Angels in June 2014, something referenced in an affidavit his lawyer filed last summer as part of his appeal in the extortion case.

He lost that appeal of his extortion sentence in February.

Olthuis suggested the affidavit was an attempt by Widdifield to distance himself from the Hells Angels to improve his chances on appeal and to show that “any influence the club may have had on you was no longer an issue. Is that fair?”

Replied Widdifield: “I don’t know how you want to spin this thing. But what the hell are you trying to say?”

Davies intervened and told the retired biker to answer the question.

Widdifield admitted Friday that he has occasionally socialized with current Nanaimo Hells Angels despite swearing in his affidavit that he doesn’t maintain contact with any of them.

Asked Othuis: “In what sort of setting would you see them?”

Replied Widdifield: “At a restaurant or at a bar maybe. … I may have lunch with one or two of them.”

He also admitted that he had attended the house the chapter is now using for its meetings “maybe once or twice.”

Asked about the conflicting information in his affidavit, Widdifield testified: “I guess I lied about that.”

Olthuis asked Widdifield if he retired from the Hells Angels “based on any concern for the influence the chapter had on your life.”

“No,” Widdifield said. “I was 62 years old. I had been doing it for 40 years — since I was 23 years old. It was time to retire.”

Hells Angels lawyer Greg DelBigio asked Widdifield if he socialized with Nanaimo bikers after his retirement because they were Hells Angels or because they were old friends.

Fred Widdifield

They had been his friends for decades, he said.

“Nanaimo is a pretty small place,” Widdifield said. “You can bump into people at different places. … Some people I have known since I was six years old.”

Earlier Friday, Olthuis read parts of Widdifield’s earlier pretrial interview with government lawyers.

Widdifield described joining the Satan Angels motorcycle club in 1978 and then being part of the “patch-over” to the Hells Angels in 1983.

He agreed that he was once a director of the company that owns the Nanaimo clubhouse property and had been a party in the government’s lawsuit against the Hells Angels.

And he alleged the police might have stolen a computer from the clubhouse “when you raided the place” in November 2007.

The trial continues next week.

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

Over the last three weeks, convicted gangster gunman Aram Ali has twice been ordered released from a Metro Vancouver immigration jail.

But the United Nations associate remains behind bars because the Federal Court of Canada has intervened three times to set aside Immigration and Refugee Board orders allowing Ali to stay with his family pending his deportation.

The latest twist in the Ali case came late Friday when Federal Court Chief Judge Paul Crampton sided with the Canada Border Services Agency and granted the stay of an IRB ruling permitting Ali’s release issued just the day before.

The 32-year-old native of Iraq came to Canada as a refugee in 2000. He never got citizenship.

He was convicted of shooting up a rival’s Range Rover outside Surrey’s T-Barz strip club in February 2009. The vehicle’s driver was struck, but the target of the shooting, Independent Soldier Tyler Willock, escaped injury.

Ali testified that he did the shooting for a friend, high-ranking UN gangster Barzan Tilli-Choli. At the time, Ali was on bail on a drug trafficking charge.

Barzan Tilli-Choli in prison in 2013.

A B.C. Supreme Court judge called him a mercenary for hire and in December 2015 sentenced him to eight and a half years, reduced to three and a half after credit for his pretrial custody. 

While serving his sentence, a deportation order was issued against him on the grounds of serious criminality. In March, an IRB member ruled that he was too dangerous to stay in Canada, saying “the circumstances of Mr. Ali’s most recent offence are chilling.”

So when he reached his statutory release date last month, Ali was handed over to the CBSA to await his removal from Canada.

That triggered a routine 48-hour detention review before IRB member Laura Ko on April 20 to determine if he could be let out on bail. Ko ordered his release on a $5,000 bond and several conditions.

The CBSA sought and was granted an emergency stay of Ko’s order later the same day at the Federal Court. Judge Patrick Gleeson issued a second stay of the IRB ruling on April 27, but it was only valid until Ali’s subsequent detention review, which was held May 2 and 3. 

On May 3, IRB member Michael McPhelan ordered Ali released a second time on more stringent conditions and two $5,000 bonds — one put up by his mom in Calgary and the second by a family friend. Both testified for Ali at the Vancouver hearing, which lasted seven and a half hours.

Despite winning the order for his release, Ali remained in custody as the CBSA returned to the Federal Court for a third time to try to get the decision set aside on the grounds that Ali remains too serious a threat to be released.

The court heard arguments over the phone from Ali’s lawyer Veen Aldosky and Sarah Pearson, representing the federal government. Crampton granted the stay of McPhelan’s release order issued just the day before.

But Ali’s fate is not sealed yet. 

Aldosky has already said she is appealing the March IRB ruling declaring her client a danger to the public.

Meanwhile, the CBSA is trying to obtain travel documents for Ali, who left Iraq with his family as an infant and spent years living in a refugee camp in Syria.

Aldosky pointed out at both the IRB and Federal Court hearings that Ali and his family were co-operating in trying to obtain the appropriate Iraqi identification documents.

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When Independent Soldiers founder Randy Naicker stopped outside a Starbucks on a warm June afternoon six years ago, he had no idea that a rival gang had fixed a tracking device to his SUV.

Despite escaping earlier attempts on his life, Naicker ended up being an easy mark that day.

Two masked gunmen blasted him at the busy Port Moody intersection of St. Johns and Queens, before running off and hopping into a getaway vehicle. A black handgun was left near the scene.

Shocked onlookers saw Naicker collapse, fatally wounded, on the concrete beside a grey Infiniti SUV, driver’s door open, a window broken. It was June 25, 4:45 p.m.

Friends and family insist that Naicker, a convicted kidnapper and long-time gangster, had left his criminal past behind.

But to the rival gang that hunted him, it made no difference.

Larry Amero of the Hells Angels (left) with the late Randy Naicker, who founded the Independent Soldiers. Naicker was shot to death in 2012 in Port Moody. (Photo: PNG files)

Just another target

He was just another target in a bloody feud that exploded after popular gangster Gurmit Dhak was gunned down outside Burnaby’s Metrotown mall in October 2010.

Dhak’s execution was the flashpoint for a near decade-long war that has raged across the province and left many dead and wounded in its wake. Few of those behind the violence have been held to account.

But earlier this month, three former Dhak associates — Jason McBride, Michael Jones and Jujhar Khun-Khun — pleaded guilty to participating in the fatal Kelowna attack that left Red Scorpion Jonathan Bacon dead in August 2011.

They admitted they plotted to kill Bacon, Hells Angel Larry Amero and Independent Soldier James Riach — who had formed the Wolf Pack alliance — on the orders of Dhak’s younger brother Sukh in retaliation for the 2010 Burnaby murder.

Jones, 31, has also been identified as a suspect in the plot to kill Naicker during the sentencing of another man, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy in August 2016.

‘The tit-for-tat violence was ongoing,’ says Vancouver police Supt. Mike Porteous. ‘Frankly, even today we are still dealing with a derivative of that ongoing conflict between those groups.’ (Photo: Jason Payne, PNG files)

The agreed statement of facts in the other case said that Jones accessed Naicker’s parkade before the shooting, fixed the tracking device to his vehicle and then waited for an opportunity to kill him.

So far, Jones has not been charged in connection with Naicker’s murder.

But he has admitted that he drove Bacon’s killers to Kelowna’s Delta Grand Hotel on Aug. 14, 2011, where McBride and the late Manny Hairan jumped out and began firing at a Porsche containing Bacon and his associates.

The bloodshed didn’t stop in Kelowna. Dozens of tit-for-tat murders and shootings followed.

Gurmit Dhak, killed Oct. 16, 2010

Anti-gang police worked hard to stem the violence. After Bacon’s murder, they called a news conference to warn the public about the brewing tensions, explaining that the Dhak group was aligned with Sandip Duhre and his associates. The Dhak-Duhre side also had links to the already notorious UN gang, they said.

“I think the real flashpoint we saw was Gurmit Dhak getting killed — that was a big one,” Vancouver Police Supt. Mike Porteous said in a recent interview.

“The tit-for-tat violence was ongoing. Frankly — and I have said this publicly before — even today we are still dealing with a derivative of that ongoing conflict between those groups.”

A month after the Kelowna attack, Khun-Khun, who has now admitted he hunted Bacon, Amero and Riach on 30 to 40 occasions, was critically wounded in a Surrey shooting outside a house that Sukh Dhak was visiting.

Kelowna payback

In October, Dhak associate Stephen Leone, who had been part of the Kelowna hunt, was shot to death in Surrey. Hairan, one of Bacon’s killers, was wounded.

Things escalated further when Duhre was shot to death in the lobby of Vancouver’s Sheraton Wall Centre on Jan. 17, 2012. Shocked players from the U.S. and Cuban women’s soccer teams, in town for an Olympic qualifying tournament, were nearby at the time.

The payback for Kelowna was continuing.

Porteous said a “litany” of shootings and murders that spanned months were “all related and they are all intertwined more or less from that particular conflict — that Wolf Pack alliance against the Dhak-Duhre-UN alliance.”

The conflict “accelerated when some of the leaders began to get taken out,” he said.

Armed hitmen were roaming the streets of Metro Vancouver looking for more targets. Police were watching them, later executing search warrants at apartments in Vancouver and Surrey and seizing caches of firearms. Two men connected to the Wolf Pack were later convicted of possessing the guns.

The trail of violence led all the way to Mexico when Tom Gisby, a major organized crime figure in B.C. for decades, was shot to death near Puerto Vallarta. Gisby had worked closely with Gurmit Dhak for years.

Sukh Dhak, younger brother of Gurmit Dhak, outside his B.C. Supreme Court drug trial in October 2012. The younger Dhak ordered retaliation against those he held responsible for his brother’s murder. Sukh Dhak was murdered a month later, in November at Burnaby’s Executive Hotel. (Photo: PNG files)

Meanwhile Sukh Dhak, who police believed was calling the shots on his side of the conflict, was on trial at the Vancouver Law Courts, accused of conspiracy and drug trafficking.

His case was on a break on Monday, Nov. 26, 2012. Dhak and his burly bodyguard Thomas Mantel headed to Burnaby’s Executive Hotel on the Lougheed Highway. They arrived about 11:30 a.m. Their killer was there, too.

Both men were shot to death in front of shocked hotel workers.

Even with the man behind the Kelowna shooting dead, the Wolf Pack wasn’t satisfied.

On Jan. 15, 2013, two of the Dhak pals directly involved in the Bacon murder were targeted on a quiet laneway in Surrey. Khun-Khun was critically injured, but miraculously survived again. Bacon shooter Manny Hairan was killed.

Within weeks, police announced first-degree murder charges against Khun-Khun, McBride and Jones for the Bacon hit and the attempts on Amero, Riach and two women passengers. 

McBride, now 42, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder May 1. The close friend of Gurmit Dhak will not be eligible for parole for 13 years. Khun-Khun and Jones were handed 18-year terms for conspiracy and will have to serve five more before they can apply for parole.

On the day of Gurmit Dhak’s funeral, McBride was one of several associates who met up afterwards in Vancouver’s Kensington Park. Anti-gang police tailed them, fearing there would be retaliation. Two of the men there were arrested with loaded guns, charged and later convicted.

Jujhar Khun-Khun (left) with the late Sukh Dhak in an undated photo. Khun-Khun pleaded guilty earlier this month to taking part in the fatal attack on Red Scorpion Jonathan Bacon outside a major Kelowna resort hotel in August 2011. Dhak was shot to death in November 2012 at a Burnaby hotel. (Photo: PNG files)

‘Bury my brother’

Retired Vancouver Police gang expert Doug Spencer was one of the officers monitoring the funeral that day.

He remembers talking to devastated younger brother Sukh, who was already being urged to retaliate.

“Sukh says all his friends, ‘All they want me to do is kill the guys who killed Gurmit. All I want to do is bury my brother,’” recalled Spencer, who now does anti-gang workshops in schools for the Odd Squad.

Spencer said Gurmit Dhak was a different breed of gangster than some of the younger, more violent guys involved today.

Thomas Mantel, a bodyguard for Sukh Dhak. Both were gunned down in Burnaby in November 2012. (Photo: PNG files)

“His attitude was make money, not war,” Spencer said. “He was old school. He was well-respected. He didn’t cross people. He just wanted to make money. He was an anomaly, really. None of them are like that now.”

The elder Dhak did business with all sides, including Hells Angels. Full-patch bikers wearing their death-head vests or “colours” attended his funeral.

Spencer said he first met the Dhak brothers when they were in elementary school in south Vancouver.

“They were normal kids. Nice kids. You would go up to talk to them and they were like, ‘Hi, officer.’ ”

Gurmit’s path changed when he was in high school. Lotus gang leader Raymond Chan approached him “right off the school grounds,” Spencer said.

“He basically pulled up in a red Porsche and said if you come and work for me, you can have one of these.”

Dhak bit. He was mentored by Chan, who himself was murdered in Richmond in May 2003.

‘I have got to worry’

Spencer said Dhak did stints in jail, where he made more criminal connections and enhanced his underworld reputation. The longest was a seven-year term for manslaughter after an associate in his vehicle shot and killed a 19-year-old outside a Vancouver nightclub in 1999.

“When Gurmit was in jail, he reached out to me and asked me to go talk to his little brother and get him away from the guys he was hanging out with,” Spencer said.

Years later, Spencer approached the elder Dhak about doing an anti-gang video for the Odd Squad to warn others about the perils of gang life. Dhak eventually agreed, making prophetic statements in the eerie video filmed months before his slaying.

“Every day I’ve got to look over my shoulder,” Dhak told Spencer. “I have got to worry — if I jump out of my car am I going to get shot? Or I could be walking in the mall and walking out and get shot. I don’t know.”

RCMP cruisers flood the area around the Kelowna’s Delta Grand Hotel on Aug. 14, 2011, where Red Scorpion gangster Jonathan Bacon was murdered in a very public hail of bullets. (Photo: Don Sipos, PNG files)

Almost eight years later, no one has been charged in Gurmit Dhak’s murder. Amero, the Hells Angel wounded in Kelowna, was arrested earlier this year and charged with conspiracy to kill Sukh Dhak and Sandip Duhre. Two Amero associates are charged with Duhre’s murder. All three remain in pre-trial custody.

Spencer thinks that Dhak would be devastated by all the blood shed in his name.

“I think he would say it wasn’t worth it. I think he would say now ‘what was I thinking?’ ” Spencer said. “He would be really upset about the fact that his brother went down. He tried to be a good big brother to him.”

Key events in the Dhak-Durhe-UN conflict with the Wolf Pack alliance

• Oct. 16, 2010: Popular underworld figure Gurmit Dhak is shot to death outside Burnaby’s Metrotown mall.

• Oct. 21, 2010: Two men linked to the Wolf Pack side, Arash (Monty) Younus and Philip Ley, shot at in their vehicle on Westminster Highway in Richmond.

• Oct. 27, 2010: After Dhak’s funeral, police covertly follow some mourners to Vancouver’s Kensington Park. Two of them — Christopher Iser and Mike Shirazi — are caught with loaded firearms and are arrested. Police said the group was plotted to kill Phil Ley.

• Dec. 12, 2010: Dhak associates shoot up a birthday party at Best Neighbours restaurant on Oak Street in Vancouver. Ten people are wounded, including Wolf Pack member Damion Ryan.

• Aug. 14, 2011: Gunmen linked to the Dhak group carry out a brazen shooting outside Kelowna’s Delta Grand Hotel that results in the murder of Jonathan Bacon and injuries to Larry Amero and two women in their vehicle. Gangster James Riach escapes injury. Bacon, Amero and Riach had joined forces in the Wolf Pack gang alliance.

• Sept. 7, 2011: Police issue a public warning that Wolf Pack associates are looking for revenge against Dhak-Duhre-UN opponents for the Kelowna shooting.

• Sept. 16, 2011: Dhak associate Jujhar Khun-Khun is shot outside a Surrey house that Sukh Dhak was visiting. He survives.

• Oct. 2, 2011: Dhak associate Billy Woo found dead on logging road near Squamish.

• Oct. 22, 2011: Dhak associate Stephen Leone, who was in Kelowna helping in the Bacon hunt two months earlier, is shot to death in Surrey.

• Jan. 16, 2012: Longtime Dhak associate and major underworld criminal Tom Gisby is targeted with an explosive device near Whistler. But the device fails to detonate.

• Jan. 17, 2012: Sandip (Dip) Duhre is executed in the lobby of Vancouver’s Sheraton Wall Centre.

• Jan. 19, 2012: Dhak associate Sean Beaver is shot to death in Surrey, second man wounded.

Police cordon off the scene at Burnaby’s Metrotown mall on the night of Oct. 16, 2010, where Gurmit Dhak was murdered, igniting a gang war with seemingly no end. Nearly eight years later, no one has been charged. (Photo: Ric Ernst, PNG files)

• April 28, 2012: B.C. gangster Gisby, 47, is shot to death while vacationing in Mexico.

• May 30, 2012: Duhre associate Gurbinder Singh (Bin) Toor, 35, is shot to death outside a Port Moody community centre.

• June 25, 2012: Independent Soldiers founder Randy Naicker gunned down in Port Moody.

• June 27, 2012: Wolf Pack-linked Phil Ley and Dean Wiwchar are charged with firearms offences after police investigating the Duhre murder search apartments linked to them.

• Nov. 26, 2012: Sukh Dhak and his bodyguard Thomas Mantel are shot and killed at the Executive Hotel in Burnaby.

• Jan. 13, 2013: Dhak associate Manjot Dhillon is shot to death in Surrey after posting anti-Wolf Pack images on his Facebook page.

• Jan. 15, 2013: Dhak associates Jujhar Khun-Khun and Manny Hairan are targeted in a Surrey shooting. Khun-Khun is critically wounded. Hairan, identified as one of the Kelowna shooters, dies.

• Feb. 25, 2013: Dhak associates Jujhar Khun-Khun, Jason McBride and Michael Jones are charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder in connection with the Kelowna shooting and Jonathan Bacon murder.

• March 18, 2013: Wolf Pack associate Rabih Alkhalil is charged with the murder of Sandip Duhre.

• Jan. 2, 2014: Red Scorpion Matthew Campbell is stabbed to death in Abbotsford after a run-in with rivals. An associate of Jujhar Khun-Khun is charged, but the charge is later stayed.

• Jan 2, 2015: Dhak associate Arundeep Cheema, 23, is shot to death in a vehicle outside the home of an associate.

• June 7, 2016: Wolf Pack gangster Harjit Deo, whose name surfaced in connection with the 2012 murder of Duhre pal Bin Toor, is shot to death in Toronto in a targeted hit.

• July 31, 2016: Former Dhak associate Sean Kelly, 27, is shot to death in Surrey.

• May 29, 2017: Kelowna murder trial of Jujhar Khun-Khun, Jason McBride and Michael Jones begins before Justice Allan Betton and goes on until October, when the proceedings adjourn to deal with a disclosure issue.

• Jan. 25, 2018: Hells Angel Larry Amero, wounded in the 2011 Kelowna shooting, is charged with conspiracy to kill gangster Sandip Duhre and Sukh Dhak in 2012. His Wolf Pack associate Dean Wiwchar is charged with murdering Duhre and plotting to kill Dhak.

• May 1, 2018: Dhak associates Jujhar Khun-Khun and Michael Jones plead guilty to conspiracy to kill Amero, Bacon and Riach in Kelowna in August 2011. Jason McBride pleads guilty to second-degree murder.

Related

• Three gangsters in Bacon murder plot slapped with stiff prison sentences
• Guilty pleas in 2011 gangland shooting that shook Kelowna
• Former gangster says Dhak contracted UN to kill enemies

kbolan@postmedia.com

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Twitter.com/kbolan

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I spent the last few days piecing together this weekend feature about all the murders and shootings that are believed to be linked to the conflict between the so-called Dhak-Duhre-UN group and the Wolf Pack.  

The trail of destruction is devastating. So many people have been killed. So few charges have been laid. Hopefully with the May 1 pleas, and the upcoming trial of Amero, Alkhalil and Wiwchar in the Duhre shooting, some families at least will get justice.

Here’s my story:

Fatal flashpoint: Gurmit Dhak’s 2010 murder ignited a gang

war that’s still raging

When Independent Soldiers founder Randy Naicker stopped outside a Starbucks on a warm June afternoon six years ago, he had no idea that a rival gang had fixed a tracking device to his SUV.

Despite escaping earlier attempts on his life, Naicker ended up being an easy mark that day.

Two masked gunmen blasted him at the busy Port Moody intersection of St. Johns and Queens, before running off and hopping into a getaway vehicle. A black handgun was left near the scene.

Shocked onlookers saw Naicker collapse, fatally wounded, on the concrete beside a grey Infiniti SUV, driver’s door open, a window broken. It was June 25, 4:45 p.m.

Friends and family insist that Naicker, a convicted kidnapper and long-time gangster, had left his criminal past behind.

But to the rival gang that hunted him, it made no difference.

Just another target

He was just another target in a bloody feud that exploded after popular gangster Gurmit Dhak was gunned down outside Burnaby’s Metrotown mall in October 2010.

Dhak’s execution was the flashpoint for a near decade-long war that has raged across the province and left many dead and wounded in its wake. Few of those behind the violence have been held to account.

But earlier this month, three former Dhak associates — Jason McBride, Michael Jones and Jujhar Khun-Khun — pleaded guilty to participating in the fatal Kelowna attack that left Red Scorpion Jonathan Bacon dead in August 2011.

They admitted they plotted to kill Bacon, Hells Angel Larry Amero and Independent Soldier James Riach — who had formed the Wolf Pack alliance — on the orders of Dhak’s younger brother Sukh in retaliation for the 2010 Burnaby murder.

RCMP cruisers flood the area around the Kelowna’s Delta Grand Hotel on Aug. 14, 2011, where Red Scorpion gangster Jonathan Bacon was murdered in a very public hail of bullets. (Photo: Don Sipos, PNG files)

Jones, 31, has also been identified as a suspect in the plot to kill Naicker during the sentencing of another man, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy in August 2016.

The agreed statement of facts in the other case said that Jones accessed Naicker’s parkade before the shooting, fixed the tracking device to his vehicle and then waited for an opportunity to kill him.

So far, Jones has not been charged in connection with Naicker’s murder.

But he has admitted that he drove Bacon’s killers to Kelowna’s Delta Grand Hotel on Aug. 14, 2011, where McBride and the late Manny Hairan jumped out and began firing at a Porsche containing Bacon and his associates.

The bloodshed didn’t stop in Kelowna. Dozens of tit-for-tat murders and shootings followed.

Anti-gang police worked hard to stem the violence. After Bacon’s murder, they called a news conference to warn the public about the brewing tensions, explaining that the Dhak group was aligned with Sandip Duhre and his associates. The Dhak-Duhre side also had links to the already notorious UN gang, they said.

“I think the real flashpoint we saw was Gurmit Dhak getting killed — that was a big one,” Vancouver Police Supt. Mike Porteous said in a recent interview.

“The tit-for-tat violence was ongoing. Frankly — and I have said this publicly before — even today we are still dealing with a derivative of that ongoing conflict between those groups.”

A month after the Kelowna attack, Khun-Khun, who has now admitted he hunted Bacon, Amero and Riach on 30 to 40 occasions, was critically wounded in a Surrey shooting outside a house that Sukh Dhak was visiting.

Kelowna payback

In October, Dhak associate Stephen Leone, who had been part of the Kelowna hunt, was shot to death in Surrey. Hairan, one of Bacon’s killers, was wounded.

Things escalated further when Duhre was shot to death in the lobby of Vancouver’s Sheraton Wall Centre on Jan. 17, 2012. Shocked players from the U.S. and Cuban women’s soccer teams, in town for an Olympic qualifying tournament, were nearby at the time.

The payback for Kelowna was continuing.

‘The tit-for-tat violence was ongoing,’ says Vancouver police Supt. Mike Porteous. ‘Frankly, even today we are still dealing with a derivative of that ongoing conflict between those groups.’ (Photo: Jason Payne, PNG files)

Porteous said a “litany” of shootings and murders that spanned months were “all related and they are all intertwined more or less from that particular conflict — that Wolf Pack alliance against the Dhak-Duhre-UN alliance.”

The conflict “accelerated when some of the leaders began to get taken out,” he said.

Armed hitmen were roaming the streets of Metro Vancouver looking for more targets. Police were watching them, later executing search warrants at apartments in Vancouver and Surrey and seizing caches of firearms. Two men connected to the Wolf Pack were later convicted of possessing the guns.

The trail of violence led all the way to Mexico when Tom Gisby, a major organized crime figure in B.C. for decades, was shot to death near Puerto Vallarta. Gisby had worked closely with Gurmit Dhak for years.

Meanwhile Sukh Dhak, who police believed was calling the shots on his side of the conflict, was on trial at the Vancouver Law Courts, accused of conspiracy and drug trafficking.

His case was on a break on Monday, Nov. 26, 2012. Dhak and his burly bodyguard Thomas Mantel headed to Burnaby’s Executive Hotel on the Lougheed Highway. They arrived about 11:30 a.m. Their killer was there, too.

Both men were shot to death in front of shocked hotel workers. 

Sukh Dhak, younger brother of Gurmit Dhak, outside his B.C. Supreme Court drug trial in October 2012. The younger Dhak ordered retaliation against those he held responsible for his brother’s murder. Sukh Dhak was murdered a month later, in November at Burnaby’s Executive Hotel. (Photo: PNG files)

Even with the man behind the Kelowna shooting dead, the Wolf Pack wasn’t satisfied.

On Jan. 15, 2013, two of the Dhak pals directly involved in the Bacon murder were targeted on a quiet laneway in Surrey. Khun-Khun was critically injured, but miraculously survived again. Bacon shooter Manny Hairan was killed.

Within weeks, police announced first-degree murder charges against Khun-Khun, McBride and Jones for the Bacon hit and the attempts on Amero, Riach and two women passengers. 

McBride, now 42, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder May 1. The close friend of Gurmit Dhak will not be eligible for parole for 13 years. Khun-Khun and Jones were handed 18-year terms for conspiracy and will have to serve five more before they can apply for parole.

On the day of Gurmit Dhak’s funeral, McBride was one of several associates who met up afterwards in Vancouver’s Kensington Park. Anti-gang police tailed them, fearing there would be retaliation. Two of the men there were arrested with loaded guns, charged and later convicted.

‘Bury my brother’

Retired Vancouver Police gang expert Doug Spencer was one of the officers monitoring the funeral that day.

He remembers talking to devastated younger brother Sukh, who was already being urged to retaliate.

“Sukh says all his friends, ‘All they want me to do is kill the guys who killed Gurmit. All I want to do is bury my brother,’” recalled Spencer, who now does anti-gang workshops in schools for the Odd Squad.

Spencer said Gurmit Dhak was a different breed of gangster than some of the younger, more violent guys involved today.

“His attitude was make money, not war,” Spencer said. “He was old school. He was well-respected. He didn’t cross people. He just wanted to make money. He was an anomaly, really. None of them are like that now.”

The elder Dhak did business with all sides, including Hells Angels. Full-patch bikers wearing their death-head vests or “colours” attended his funeral.

Spencer said he first met the Dhak brothers when they were in elementary school in south Vancouver.

“They were normal kids. Nice kids. You would go up to talk to them and they were like, ‘Hi, officer.’ ”

Gurmit’s path changed when he was in high school. Lotus gang leader Raymond Chan approached him “right off the school grounds,” Spencer said.

“He basically pulled up in a red Porsche and said if you come and work for me, you can have one of these.”

Dhak bit. He was mentored by Chan, who himself was murdered in Richmond in May 2003.

‘I have got to worry’

Spencer said Dhak did stints in jail, where he made more criminal connections and enhanced his underworld reputation. The longest was a seven-year term for manslaughter after an associate in his vehicle shot and killed a 19-year-old outside a Vancouver nightclub in 1999.

“When Gurmit was in jail, he reached out to me and asked me to go talk to his little brother and get him away from the guys he was hanging out with,” Spencer said.

Years later, Spencer approached the elder Dhak about doing an anti-gang video for the Odd Squad to warn others about the perils of gang life. Dhak eventually agreed, making prophetic statements in the eerie video filmed months before his slaying.

“Every day I’ve got to look over my shoulder,” Dhak told Spencer. “I have got to worry — if I jump out of my car am I going to get shot? Or I could be walking in the mall and walking out and get shot. I don’t know.”

Almost eight years later, no one has been charged in Gurmit Dhak’s murder. Amero, the Hells Angel wounded in Kelowna, was arrested earlier this year and charged with conspiracy to kill Sukh Dhak and Sandip Duhre. Two Amero associates are charged with Duhre’s murder. All three remain in pre-trial custody.

Spencer thinks that Dhak would be devastated by all the blood shed in his name.

“I think he would say it wasn’t worth it. I think he would say now ‘what was I thinking?’ ” Spencer said. “He would be really upset about the fact that his brother went down. He tried to be a good big brother to him.”

Key events in the Dhak-Durhe-UN conflict with the Wolf Pack alliance

• Oct. 16, 2010: Popular underworld figure Gurmit Dhak is shot to death outside Burnaby’s Metrotown mall.

• Oct. 21, 2010: Two men linked to the Wolf Pack side, Arash (Monty) Younus and Philip Ley, shot at in their vehicle on Westminster Highway in Richmond.

• Oct. 27, 2010: After Dhak’s funeral, police covertly follow some mourners to Vancouver’s Kensington Park. Two of them — Christopher Iser and Mike Shirazi — are caught with loaded firearms and are arrested. Police said the group was plotted to kill Phil Ley.

• Dec. 12, 2010: Dhak associates shoot up a birthday party at Best Neighbours restaurant on Oak Street in Vancouver. Ten people are wounded, including Wolf Pack member Damion Ryan.

• Aug. 14, 2011: Gunmen linked to the Dhak group carry out a brazen shooting outside Kelowna’s Delta Grand Hotel that results in the murder of Jonathan Bacon and injuries to Larry Amero and two women in their vehicle. Gangster James Riach escapes injury. Bacon, Amero and Riach had joined forces in the Wolf Pack gang alliance.

• Sept. 7, 2011: Police issue a public warning that Wolf Pack associates are looking for revenge against Dhak-Duhre-UN opponents for the Kelowna shooting.

• Sept. 16, 2011: Dhak associate Jujhar Khun-Khun is shot outside a Surrey house that Sukh Dhak was visiting. He survives.

• Oct. 2, 2011: Dhak associate Billy Woo found dead on logging road near Squamish.

• Oct. 22, 2011: Dhak associate Stephen Leone, who was in Kelowna helping in the Bacon hunt two months earlier, is shot to death in Surrey.

• Jan. 16, 2012: Longtime Dhak associate and major underworld criminal Tom Gisby is targeted with an explosive device near Whistler. But the device fails to detonate.

• Jan. 17, 2012: Sandip (Dip) Duhre is executed in the lobby of Vancouver’s Sheraton Wall Centre.

• Jan. 19, 2012: Dhak associate Sean Beaver is shot to death in Surrey, second man wounded.

• April 28, 2012: B.C. gangster Gisby, 47, is shot to death while vacationing in Mexico.

• May 30, 2012: Duhre associate Gurbinder Singh (Bin) Toor, 35, is shot to death outside a Port Moody community centre.

• June 25, 2012: Independent Soldiers founder Randy Naicker gunned down in Port Moody.

• June 27, 2012: Wolf Pack-linked Phil Ley and Dean Wiwchar are charged with firearms offences after police investigating the Duhre murder search apartments linked to them.

• Nov. 26, 2012: Sukh Dhak and his bodyguard Thomas Mantel are shot and killed at the Executive Hotel in Burnaby.

• Jan. 13, 2013: Dhak associate Manjot Dhillon is shot to death in Surrey after posting anti-Wolf Pack images on his Facebook page.

• Jan. 15, 2013: Dhak associates Jujhar Khun-Khun and Manny Hairan are targeted in a Surrey shooting. Khun-Khun is critically wounded. Hairan, identified as one of the Kelowna shooters, dies.

• Feb. 25, 2013: Dhak associates Jujhar Khun-Khun, Jason McBride and Michael Jones are charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder in connection with the Kelowna shooting and Jonathan Bacon murder.

• March 18, 2013: Wolf Pack associate Rabih Alkhalil is charged with the murder of Sandip Duhre.

• Jan. 2, 2014: Red Scorpion Matthew Campbell is stabbed to death in Abbotsford after a run-in with rivals. An associate of Jujhar Khun-Khun is charged, but the charge is later stayed.

• Jan 2, 2015: Dhak associate Arundeep Cheema, 23, is shot to death in a vehicle outside the home of an associate.

• June 7, 2016: Wolf Pack gangster Harjit Deo, whose name surfaced in connection with the 2012 murder of Duhre pal Bin Toor, is shot to death in Toronto in a targeted hit.

• July 31, 2016: Former Dhak associate Sean Kelly, 27, is shot to death in Surrey.

• May 29, 2017: Kelowna murder trial of Jujhar Khun-Khun, Jason McBride and Michael Jones begins before Justice Allan Betton and goes on until October, when the proceedings adjourn to deal with a disclosure issue.

• Jan. 25, 2018: Hells Angel Larry Amero, wounded in the 2011 Kelowna shooting, is charged with conspiracy to kill gangster Sandip Duhre and Sukh Dhak in 2012. His Wolf Pack associate Dean Wiwchar is charged with murdering Duhre and plotting to kill Dhak.

• May 1, 2018: Dhak associates Jujhar Khun-Khun and Michael Jones plead guilty to conspiracy to kill Amero, Bacon and Riach in Kelowna in August 2011. Jason McBride pleads guilty to second-degree murder.

The only man convicted in the 1985 Air India bombing can skip future counselling sessions even though a psychologist says he has “made minimal gains in therapy,” the Parole Board of Canada has ruled.

Inderjit Singh Reyat has been convicted twice of manslaughter in the deaths of 331 people, as well as for perjury after he lied at the terrorism trial of his two co-accused, who were later acquitted.

When Reyat was released from prison in 2016 after serving two-thirds of his third sentence in the perjury case, he was put on special conditions, including that he attend counselling “to address contributing factors to your offending.”

But that condition was removed by parole board member Catherine Dawson on April 29 because Reyat was no longer benefiting from the counselling.

The psychologist who worked with Reyat said in a report that he had “made minimal gains in therapy.”

“You have presented as guarded, denied your involvement in the Air India tragedy, and have denied that you are a person of strong political beliefs,” Dawson said in her decision, released Monday.

Reyat told his counsellor that all he had done is supply bomb parts to the terrorists, which he saw as “an act of kindness.”

“You have explained that any ‘missteps’ were a result of bad judgment in your desire to be helpful. Nonetheless the psychologist indicates that you appeared to partly address a cognitive distortion that in your desire to ‘help’ you may have turned a blind eye contributing to violence on a mass scale,” Dawson wrote. “The board remains very concerned with the gravity of your criminal offending that contributed to the deaths of 331 people. The impact of these deaths on families as well across the community and around the globe is incalculable.”

Dawson also said that Reyat’s remorse was more about the impact of his crimes on his family, not on the victims.

“The Board has noted you have not gained measurable insight into the harm you caused others but only the consequences that you and your family experienced. You have not developed empathy for others through the process; the gains you have made in psychological counselling are limited.”

But Dawson also said that Reyat’s case management team “has been working closely with a police high risk target team in order to monitor” him in the community.

“The report indicates that there are no current conditions with respect to your activities or associates in the community.”

The official end of Reyat’s sentence comes in August 2018.

“Having thoroughly considered the contents of your file, the recent findings of a psychologist and the professional opinions and recommendations of your case management team the board has determined that psychological counselling is no longer advancing your correctional plan and is unlikely to do so in the next three months,” Dawson said.

“The board finds that, given all of these factors, that the condition is no longer reasonable and necessary.”

Reyat had attended the counselling sessions as required since he was released into the community two years ago.

“The psychologist reports that you have been co-operating in attending sessions but have appeared uncomfortable generally discussing issues with her,” the decision said. “The issues discussed over the course of therapy have included your understanding of the offence, empathy, your domestic life, your concert over your family finances and employment. The psychologist indicates that you present as a man reluctant to discuss your personal feelings.”

Reyat was convicted in 1991 of manslaughter for building a bomb that exploded on June 23, 1985 at Tokyo’s Narita Airport, resulting in the deaths of two baggage handlers. He got a 10-year sentence.

In February 2003, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the same day bombing of Air India flight 182, which exploded en route to India from Canada. All 329 people aboard perished.

In 2011, he was sentenced to seven and a half years for lying at the trial of Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri. Both were found not guilty in March 2005.

The two bombings were plotted by B.C. Sikh separatists who targeted India’s national airline to retaliate for the Indian Army’s raid a year earlier on the Golden Temple — Sikhism’s holiest shrine — in Amritsar.

kbolan@postmedia.com

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twitter.com/kbolan

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Homicide investigators have been called in after a man was shot to death at a gas station just off the highway at 232 Street in Langley Tuesday evening.

Police also found another torched vehicle several kilometres away – which has become a hallmark of Lower Mainland gang shootings of late. 

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team has only confirmed bare bone details. Reporters at the scene say a dark Range Rover has bullet holes in it.

IHIT Cpl. Frank Jang said in a news release that the victim was found on the ground, “transported to hospital but succumbed to his injuries.” 

“It is early in the investigation but this appears to be a targeted incident,” Jang said. “We need those who have information about this incident to please come forward. We are specifically asking for dash cam video from drivers who were travelling along 72 Avenue between 232 Street and Highway 10 at around 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. yesterday evening.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact IHIT at 1-877-551-4448 or ihitinfo@rcmp-grc.gc.ca.

MORE TO COME…

If you know anything, can you email me? kbolan@postmedia.com

A violent Lower Mainland gang was contracting itself out to commit murders for larger, more-established organized crime groups, Vancouver Police Supt. Mike Porteous said Thursday.

But the “Gill group”, headed by 21-year-old Taqdir Gill, has now been dismantled after a months-long investigation that resulted in seven arrests and the seizure of four guns, Porteous said.

“Project Temper, a gang violence suppression operation, has resulted in the dismantling of the Gill group. This violent crime group was comprised of several individuals,” Porteous told reporters. “The VPD is committed to aggressively targeting people who pose the most risk to our communities.”

Gill, Walta Abay, 23, Hitkaran Johal, 19, are all charged with conspiracy to commit murder between Oct. 5 and 27, 2017.

Both Gill and Abay are also charged with possession of a loaded, restricted or prohibited firearm on Oct. 26, and being in a vehicle knowing there was a gun inside.

Porteous said the murder conspiracy involved “several victims” — some of whom were rival gang members.

But a Vancouver businessman with no gang links was also targeted by the group, Porteous said.

None of the victims are listed in court documents obtained by Postmedia.

Porteous said at one time the Gill group was aligned with the Kang faction of Brothers Keepers, which has traditionally been on the Red Scorpion side of a decade-long regional conflict.

But Postmedia has learned that the Gill group had switched allegiances to the United Nations side.

“I would suggest that they were working within a cell themselves, but they were working more on a contract basis for other crime groups or bigger crime groups,” Porteous said.

“The way these gangs are structured … across the region — there’s sort of the Red Scorpion-associated people and on the other side there’s the United Nations-associated people.”

He said smaller groups of upstarts or younger would-be gangsters form their own smaller gangs and align themselves with one side or the other.

Also charged are Simrat Lally and Pawandeep Chopra, both 20, and two youths who were 17 when their alleged offences occurred and therefore cannot be identified.

Lally is facing counts of conspiracy to discharge a firearm and conspiracy to commit arson, as well as two counts of possessing a firearm and one of being in a car containing a gun. Chopra allegedly possessed a loaded or restricted firearm on Oct. 30 in Vancouver. One youth is facing firearms charges while the other is charged with conspiracy to commit arson.

Porteous said the Gill group came to the attention of anti-gang investigators after a series of shootings last August.

“There was a spike in gang violence,” he said. “They were proactively targeted. We used a variety of police methods to gather evidence, including surveillance.”

Because the gang operated across the region, the VPD worked with the anti-gang Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, Porteous said.

CFSEU Chief Officer Kevin Hackett said the teamwork is “critical” and will continue.

“The coordinated and strategic engagement, disruption, and enforcement efforts that we have collectively undertaken since the start of this joint operation will continue as part of our long-term regional strategy,” Hackett said.

Even young gangsters who are not criminally sophisticated, like those in the Gill group, seem to have easy access to firearms, Porteous said.

“We are seeing more and more weapons on the street. We are close to the border and a lot of stuff comes from across the line,” he said. “They are easily accessing weapons, so it is not that difficult. They are out there on the market for them to purchase.”

Porteous defended anti-gang programs aimed at prevention despite the young ages of those involved in the Gill group.

“There are 19, 20 and 21 year olds conspiring to commit murder, so apparently it wasn’t sinking in for them. But it does work for many others,” Porteous said of programs like End Gang Life.

“The overall education and prevention strategies that the police are using across the region are reducing (gang involvement) at the grassroots level.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

blog: vancouversun.com/tag/real-scoop

twitter.com/kbolan

The VPD is asking any member of the public who has information on any violent crime to please contact them at 604-717-0505 or to call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477.

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Less than two weeks after Michael Jones admitted to his role in the conspiracy to kill Jonathan Bacon, he has pleaded guilty to plotting to kill Independent Soldiers founder Randy Naicker.

My colleague was in court today for Jones’ plea, that was negotiated as part of the agreement in Kelowna entered into court on May 1.

Jones gets 18 years for the Naicker plot, to be served concurrently to the 18 year term he was given for the Bacon conspiracy.

While that might not seem to be any additional punishment for plots that resulted in the murders of two men, it is likely to impact when Jones gets paroled.

However until May 1, he had been facing two counts of first-degree murder, both of which have been dropped in exchange for the pleas.

Here’s is my colleague’s story:

And in a surprise development in court today, Ontario resident Knowah Ferguson pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of Hells Angel Damion Ryan in April 2015. Ryan was sitting in the food court area of the Vancouver airport when a gunman wearing a burka attempted to shoot him. The gun jammed.

A sentencing date for Fergurson, who is only 21, will be set on May 30.

Here’s my colleague’s story on the plea: