2009 Vancouver gang war
Encyclopedia
In early 2009, a series of gang-related shootings occurred due to what police describe as a gang war
in Vancouver
. Alleged participants include the Independent Soldiers
, the Sanghera
Crime Group, the Buttar
Gang, the Bacon Brothers (gangsters)
, the United Nations Gang
, the Red Scorpions
, and the Vancouver chapter of the Hells Angels
.
. Although more recently, Chinese
and Guatemalans and other various nationalities have been recruited. Both of these gangs main modus operandi is gun running and smuggling marijuana known as BC Bud to the United States
.
The cocaine trade became very profitable due to the ongoing Mexican Drug War
. The Mexican Army has severely curtailed the ability of the Mexican drug cartels to move cocaine inside USA and Canada. The U.S. government says the amount of cocaine seized on U.S. soil dropped by 41 percent between early 2007 and mid-2008 and claims this is due to this pressure. The price in Vancouver has increased from $23,300 to almost $39,000 a kilo.
The cocaine trade has been the domain of the IS and UN's rival Red Scorpion street gang and the Hells Angels biker gang. As the IS and UN gangs moved in, the Red Scorpions hit back leading to an all out gang war.
But most of the wounded and killed had been members of the Red Scorpions and UN gangs who were engaged in a brutal tit-for-tat turf war. The carnage between the UN and the Red Scorpions was believed to stem from the fatal shootings of six men in an apartment in the suburb of Surrey in 2007. Dozens of other slayings followed, many of them retribution killings and commercial disputes between the UN and the associated members of the Red Scorpions, the Bacon brothers who used to be members of the UN gang. But the conflict between these gangs escalated dramatically after the UN gang along with the IS gang decided to move into the cocaine trade, a long domain of the Red Scorpion gang.
After initially failing to announce that they had a gang war on their hands, on March 6, 2009, the Vancouver police announced there is a gang war after making several arrests. In particular they have gone after the leadership of the UN and Red Scorpion gangs and closely monitoring the Bacon Brothers
after they survived a rash of hits against them. In May, police arrested eight senior U.N. members, including the leader, Iraqi immigrant Barzan Tilli-Choli, on charges of conspiracy to kill the Bacon brothers while, Dennis Karbovanec a member of the Red Scorpions pled guilty to previous crimes. Since the arrest of the leadership, there has been a drop in violence but occasional violence does continue.
Gang War
Gang War is a 1928 gangster film, best known for being the main feature attached to Steamboat Willie, the debut of Mickey Mouse in sound. The film starred Jack Pickford in his last major role, as "Clyde", a saxophone player whose love for a dancer named Flowers traps him in the middle of a gang war...
in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
. Alleged participants include the Independent Soldiers
Independent Soldiers
The Independent Soldiers, otherwise known as the IS, is one of the most well known gangs in British Columbia. The I.S consists of many nationalities with higher positions generally filled with Indo-Canadians of Punjabi descent....
, the Sanghera
Sanghera
Sanghera/Senghera is a gotra of the Jat people.-Geographical distribution:The Sanghera/Senghera community are a famous jat clan ....
Crime Group, the Buttar
Buttar
Buttar , is a Jat clan. Its members live in the Punjab region mainly the Malwa belt. Buttars in Pakistan are Muslims...
Gang, the Bacon Brothers (gangsters)
Bacon Brothers (gangsters)
The Bacon Brothers, Jonathan , Jarrod and Jamie Bacon, are a trio of alleged gangsters, suspected of multiple firearms and drug trafficking charges and implicated in a rash of homicides that have occurred in the Fraser Valley and Greater Vancouver area...
, the United Nations Gang
United Nations (gang)
The United Nations Gang or Global United Nations Syndicate is a criminal gang active in the Vancouver, British Columbia area...
, the Red Scorpions
Red Scorpions
The Red Scorpions are a gang based in British Columbia, Canada. Originally formed in a young offenders facility, they have been running “dial-a-dope lines” – in the suburbs of Vancouver since 2000...
, and the Vancouver chapter of the Hells Angels
Hells Angels
The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club is a worldwide one-percenter motorcycle gang and organized crime syndicate whose members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles. In the United States and Canada, the Hells Angels are incorporated as the Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation. Their primary motto...
.
Background
The escalation of gang violence in Vancouver, beginning in January 2009, is alleged to have been caused by disruptions to the supply of illegal drugs resulting from the crackdown by the Mexican government against the drug cartels there, who supplied cocaine to British Columbia in return for marijuana. This reduced the profits of the Independent Soldiers (IS) and their sometime allies the United Nations gang. The IS are primarily an Indo-Canadian gang while the United Nations gang is made of a multitude of different ethnic groups, mostly Indo-CanadiansIndo-Canadians
Indo-Canadians are Canadians whose origins trace back to India. The terms East Indian and South Asian are used to distinguish people of ancestral origin from India, from the First Nations peoples of Canada who are often referred to as Indian, and from the people of the Caribbean, who are sometimes...
. Although more recently, Chinese
Chinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
and Guatemalans and other various nationalities have been recruited. Both of these gangs main modus operandi is gun running and smuggling marijuana known as BC Bud to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
The cocaine trade became very profitable due to the ongoing Mexican Drug War
Mexican Drug War
The Mexican Drug War is an ongoing armed conflict taking place among rival drug cartels who fight each other for regional control, and Mexican government forces who seek to combat drug trafficking. However, the government's principal goal has been to put down the drug-related violence that was...
. The Mexican Army has severely curtailed the ability of the Mexican drug cartels to move cocaine inside USA and Canada. The U.S. government says the amount of cocaine seized on U.S. soil dropped by 41 percent between early 2007 and mid-2008 and claims this is due to this pressure. The price in Vancouver has increased from $23,300 to almost $39,000 a kilo.
The cocaine trade has been the domain of the IS and UN's rival Red Scorpion street gang and the Hells Angels biker gang. As the IS and UN gangs moved in, the Red Scorpions hit back leading to an all out gang war.
Progress and escalation
By the end of the first quarter of 2009, more than 20 people had been killed and 40 wounded. The Hells Angels had primarily stayed out of the fighting up to this point while the IS gang was busy trying to protect its turf from the resurgent Buttar Gang after police in April of 2009 functionally dismantled the rival Sanghera Crime Group after a series of arrests which created a vacuum allowing the Buttar gang to expand its operations and encroaching on the IS for its marijuana monopoly.But most of the wounded and killed had been members of the Red Scorpions and UN gangs who were engaged in a brutal tit-for-tat turf war. The carnage between the UN and the Red Scorpions was believed to stem from the fatal shootings of six men in an apartment in the suburb of Surrey in 2007. Dozens of other slayings followed, many of them retribution killings and commercial disputes between the UN and the associated members of the Red Scorpions, the Bacon brothers who used to be members of the UN gang. But the conflict between these gangs escalated dramatically after the UN gang along with the IS gang decided to move into the cocaine trade, a long domain of the Red Scorpion gang.
After initially failing to announce that they had a gang war on their hands, on March 6, 2009, the Vancouver police announced there is a gang war after making several arrests. In particular they have gone after the leadership of the UN and Red Scorpion gangs and closely monitoring the Bacon Brothers
Bacon Brothers (gangsters)
The Bacon Brothers, Jonathan , Jarrod and Jamie Bacon, are a trio of alleged gangsters, suspected of multiple firearms and drug trafficking charges and implicated in a rash of homicides that have occurred in the Fraser Valley and Greater Vancouver area...
after they survived a rash of hits against them. In May, police arrested eight senior U.N. members, including the leader, Iraqi immigrant Barzan Tilli-Choli, on charges of conspiracy to kill the Bacon brothers while, Dennis Karbovanec a member of the Red Scorpions pled guilty to previous crimes. Since the arrest of the leadership, there has been a drop in violence but occasional violence does continue.
Gang-related homicides and shootings
Gang shootings have been the subject of intense media coverage in Vancouver in 2009. These events include:January
- 20: Jamie BaconBacon Brothers (gangsters)The Bacon Brothers, Jonathan , Jarrod and Jamie Bacon, are a trio of alleged gangsters, suspected of multiple firearms and drug trafficking charges and implicated in a rash of homicides that have occurred in the Fraser Valley and Greater Vancouver area...
's car shot at while driving through AbbotsfordAbbotsford, British ColumbiaAbbotsford is a Canadian city located in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, adjacent to Greater Vancouver. It is the fifth largest municipality in British Columbia, home to 123,864 people . Its Census Metropolitan Area, which includes the District of Mission, is the 23rd largest in Canada,...
. Bacon was the subject of an unusual public warning issued by police earlier this year, suggesting anyone dealing with him could be at risk. - 22: Forty-two-year-old man wounded in an apparent robbery at Abbotsford marijuana grow-operation.
- 23: Two men wounded by shots fired outside Abbotsford home.
- 24: Occupant of a SurreySurrey, British ColumbiaSurrey is a city in the province of British Columbia, Canada. It is a member municipality of Metro Vancouver, the governing body of the Greater Vancouver Regional District...
home wounded by early-morning shots fired through door. - 27: Andrew (Drew) Cilliers, 26, shot outside a home in what appeared to be a targeted attack.
- 29: William Peter Canning, 65, New Westminster resident, found slain in an east Vancouver apartment building.
February
- 1: Tyson Edwards, 21, Burnaby resident, stabbed outside a nightclub in downtown Vancouver.
- 2: James Ward Erickson, 25, shot in an apartment in Surrey.
- 3: Brianna Helen Kinnear, 22, found shot in a truck in Coquitlam.
- 3: Raphael Baldini, 21, was shot in a busy parking lot in Surrey.
- 6: William Wayne Cloud, 19, stabbed to death in a house.
- 6: Kevin LeClair, 26, Surrey man was shot in the parking lot outside a Langley grocery store.
- 8: Man wounded in shooting in west-side Vancouver parking lot.
- 11: Nicholas Gordon Smith, 24, shot in the basement of a house.
- 12: Shots fired at a Burnaby home, no suspect found.
- 16: Driver wounded after shots fired at SUV outside Surrey strip club; police later arrest five people, charge two with attempted murder.
- 16: Nicole Alemy killed in Surrey while driving husband's car with four-year-old son in back seat.
- 17: Shane Alan Messent, 24, shot while committing a home invasion.
- 22: Man known to police wounded in shooting in east Vancouver.
- 26: Cory Stephen Konkin, 30, shot in his car in Maple RidgeMaple Ridge, British ColumbiaMaple Ridge is a District Municipality in British Columbia, located in the northeastern section of Metro Vancouver. Maple Ridge has a population of approximately 68,949.-History:...
. - 27: Man shot outside Surrey home in what police call targeted attack.
March
- 2: Sukhwinder Singh Dhaliwal, 32, was found shot dead.
- 3: Young woman killed and man wounded in shooting at Burnaby apartment.
- 3: Sunil Mall, 27, shot in his car in East Vancouver.
- 3: Shots fired in drive-by shooting outside suspected drug house in Surrey.
- 5: Man shot in drive-by shooting at Vancouver home.
- 10: Two men shot and killed in an apartment.
- 15: Laura Lynn Lamoureux, 36, gunned down in a Langley gutter early Saturday morning.
- 19: Marc Bontkes, 33, found shot to death in the parking lot of Hi-Knoll Park.
- 30: Sean Murphy, 21, shot to death in his car on Bateman Road and Latimer Street.
- 31: Ryan Richards, 19, found shot to death in a field behind a produce store.
April
- 4: Unidentified man found shot to death in an SUV.
- 6: Lionel Tan, 24, shot to death outside a gas station.
- 15: Betty Yan, 39, found shot to death in a grey Mercedes at a dark industrial Richmond strip mall.
May
- 1: Joseph Randay, 18, and Dilsher Singh Gill, 17, were abducted and then shot to death in an abandoned SUV.
- 12: Damon Michael Martin, 33, found shot to death with a shotgun lying on a road in the Panorama Ridge area of Surrey.
- 16: Christopher Roy Whitmee, 34, shot to death on 176 Street and 57th Avenue in Cloverdale, a town centre in Surrey. Another man was critically injured.
- 28: Sarjbit Nagra, 29, shot on a Maple Ridge street. Drove himself to hospital where he died of his injuries.
June
- 11: Jeffrey Qi Feng Bian, stabbed to death in an 18th-floor Yaletown condominium.
- 30: Jaswant Rai, 36, found shot to death in an SUV on Mount Lehman Road between Townshipline Road and Downes Road.
July
- 13: Unidentified South Asian male found shot dead inside the A Canadian Autobody and Painting workshop in Surrey.
- 16: John William Hanna, 25, found dead in a burned-out car in Burnaby, killed in a targeted hit.