James Kyle (Jamie) Bacon, a member of the Red Scorpions gang, was charged Saturday in B.C.'s worst gang slaying.

James Kyle (Jamie) Bacon, a member of the Red Scorpions gang, was charged Saturday in B.C.'s worst gang slaying.
His co-accused, Cody Haevischer, appeared in court Monday to face charges in the deaths of six men who were gunned down inside a Surrey apartment in October 2007.Bacon is charged with one count of first-degree murder in the death of Corey Lal, and one charge of conspiracy to commit murder in Lal's death.On Oct. 19, 2007, Lal, his brother Michael Lal, Ryan Bartolomeo and Eddie Narong were shot in the head in a targeted hit. The four men who had ties to the drug trade were killed along with Chris Mohan and Ed Schellenberg, who happened to be in the apartment building the night of the murders.Crown counsel Wendy Dawson on Tuesday asked Justice Jean Lytwyn for a direct indictment, which would skip a preliminary hearing and push the murder trial straight to B.C. Supreme Court.
Bacon is scheduled to appear in court again on May 15.The 23-year-old was also in court facing weapons charges along with his older brother, Jarrod Bacon, amid top security.

Vancouver,blood-spattered streets littered with shell casings and corpses.

Vancouver is the battlefield in a war between myriad drug gangs, which include Hell's Angels, Big Circle Boys, United Nations, Red Scorpions, Independent Soldiers and the 14K Triad. Guns – often machineguns – are fired almost daily. "We've always been told by media experts to never admit that there is a gang war," the chief of police, Jim Chu, said last month. "Let's get serious. There is a gang war and it's brutal."



Vancouver's Mayor, Gregor Robertson, confessed that the police are fighting a losing battle. Since mid-January, the city has recorded 50 gang-related shootings, 18 of them fatal. And the violence is not confined to seedy neighbourhoods. The cross-fire is happening in quiet, residential cul-de-sacs and the car parks of up-scale shopping centres. It's a suburban civil war.Nor are hardened criminals the only victims. An attack on one gangster's car killed a 24-year-old man hired to fit it with a new stereo. In February, Nicole Alemy, 23, the wife of another gangster, was gunned down in her white Cadillac – with her four-year-old son in the back seat. On Friday, police arrested James Bacon – one of three brothers who left the United Nations gang to join the Red Scorpions, intensifying the rivalry between the two – for conspiring in the deaths of four gangsters in their flat in Surrey, south-east of Vancouver. Two innocent men were forced from the hallway into the flat and also killed. Police said they intend to make more arrests over the weekend.As Vancouver has boomed over the past two decades, attracting wealthy immigrants from across Canada and the Pacific, so too has the illegal drugs trade. It is now the third largest industry in the province, generating between C$7bn (£3.8bn) and C$8bn a year. A young, party-loving population with liberal attitudes to drugs has created strong domestic demand, while the province's mild climate and a ready supply of well-educated horticulturalists has led to supply of a premium brand of cannabis called "BC bud", produced mostly in hydroponic "grow-ops".The drug's superior quality – "one puff and you're anaesthetised," reported one academic – also found favour with customers in the US, encouraging an imaginative corps of smugglers. Customs agents have found shipments in church vans, hollow logs and even kayaks. One enterprising crew emulated the prisoners of Stalag Luft III, digging a 110m tunnel "under the wire". The bigger problem for Canada, though, was the return trade. The US drug distributors preferred to pay in kind, with cocaine and guns.Many commentators think Vancouver's violence is just a skirmish on the fringe of the much larger war in Mexico, where 6,000 were murdered last year as the state tried to reassert control over territories seized by drug lords. The result has been a 50 per cent rise in the price of cocaine in Canada, and correspondingly higher profits to fight over. But not everyone is convinced. Experts at Simon Fraser University argue that the problem is home-grown, and that it's exacerbated by police efforts to bang up mob leaders. "All you do is create vacancies as you put people in jail," said Ehor Boyanowsky, an associate professor of criminology. "Suddenly there's an opportunity."

Dennis Richard Karbovanec has plead guilty to three counts of second-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder

Dennis Richard Karbovanec has plead guilty to three counts of second-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder, RCMP confirmed Friday afternoon. It comes 18 months after the so-called ‘Surrey Six’ slayings that saw two innocent men die.Karbovanec, 27, plead guilty at B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver Friday morning, RCMP said.The murder charges concern the deaths of 19-year-old Ryan Bartolomeo and 26-year-old Michael Lal. The third charge is for the death of 22-year-old Chris Mohan, who RCMP say was an innocent bystander caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.Ed Schellenberg, 55, was the other innocent victim.Karbovanec also plead guilty to conspiring to commit first-degree murder in the death of 21-year-old Corey Lal, Michael’s brother.Speaking with reporters briefly Friday, RCMP Integrated Homicide Investigation Team spokesman Corp. Dale Carr called the murders on the 15th floor of a condo complex “horrific.”“[We’ve] obviously made it a very big priority, allocating resources that were almost unprecedented,” Carr said.RCMP say arrests are ongoing. Three other people named as co-conspirators are James Kyle Bacon, 23, of Abbotsford; Matthew James Johnston, 24, of New Westminster; and Cory Ray Haevischer, 24, of Nanaimo.RCMP have scheduled a press conference for Saturday afternoon, where it’s expected further details of the investigation, dubbed Project E-PESETA, will be made public.Police have issued rare public warnings about Karbovanec and Bacon, saying they were known gang members being targeted by rivals and that associating with them could put people in harm's way.Bacon survived an attempted hit in January and has two other Bacon brothers who have also been the subject of police warnings.
The brothers have been linked to the Red Scorpions, a gang that police say is currently in a turf war with the UN gang.
Gang expert Julian Sher said the arrests mark a significant breakthrough for police, but it's difficult to say how they will affect the ongoing violence."We don't know (the effect), is the simple answer," said Sher, an author whose work has focused on biker gangs such as the Hells Angels."Generally, it's a good sign. Suddenly, your gang is fighting a war on a different front. Suddenly, you need lawyers, you've got to fight for bail. It keeps you busy and it's going to make them a lot more nervous."The Bacons live in a quiet neighbourhood of newer homes near Abbotsford, with panoramic vistas of the Fraser Valley, their house adorned with lights and security cameras.Next-door neighbour Silvio Zampieri said nearly a dozen police cars surrounded the two-story house on Friday, as officers with "very big guns" told him and his family to stay inside."They said to close the windows and doors and go back inside," said Zampieri, who lives with his wife, two children and mother-in-law."I was scared and all my family were scared."Zampieri said he has not spoken to the Bacon brothers or their parents, who they live with, although he sees them coming and going occasionally. He said he and his wife but will say "hi" to the parents when they see them.

Vancouver-based Red Scorpions gang that aggressively expanded in the capital city's drug trade by threatening other dealers and giving free crack

The Red Scorpions are considered to be one of the most violent gangs in B.C. and members have been identified as suspects in the slaughter of six people in a Surrey highrise in October 2007.Victoria police say they've dismantled a chapter of the Vancouver-based Red Scorpions gang that aggressively expanded in the capital city's drug trade by threatening other dealers and sometimes giving crack cocaine away for free.Police arrested six people, in their late teens and early 20s, last week and raided a Saanich house -- on Borden Street, near McKenzie Avenue -- they called the base of operations for a burgeoning Greater Victoria "dial-a-dope" operation.In addition to the arrests, police seized $3,000 in cash, $1,000 in cocaine and a loaded sawed-off shotgun, said Const. Colin Brown, a lead investigator.The raid was the culmination of a month-long undercover operation by the Greater Victoria Regional Crime Unit, and Victoria and Saanich police. Plainclothes officers bought crack cocaine from dealers downtown, said Brown."We certainly believe that we've made a dent in this group," said Brown.During the undercover work, police identified 11 people they thought were either members or associates of the Red Scorpions. Six were arrested and face court dates this week. Two are in custody for unrelated charges, and three remain on the loose and are wanted, say police.Those arrested face a variety of drug trafficking and possession for the purpose of trafficking charges. They are to appear in court this week. Victoria police will ask the court to ban some of them from returning to Vancouver Island, said Brown.
The Red Scorpion gang was recruiting members in Victoria by distributing free crack cocaine with a phone number for orders it filled 24 hours a day, said Brown. The Scorpions were also "very aggressive" to other dealers and police were concerned about the potential for future violence, said Brown.
It was established in the Lower Mainland eight years ago by a group of young men who met each other in a youth detention facility and has grown over the years. Many members have a "RS" tattoo on their wrists, neck or shoulders.
Two years ago, several Red Scorpions were arrested in connection with a large crack cocaine "dial-a-dope" operation in Coquitlam, Burnaby, New Westminster and Port Moody. After 10 accused in the ring pleaded guilty, it was believed the Scorpions had been disbanded but police said earlier this year the gang was still active.
Sgt. Shinder Kirk, of the B.C. Integrated Gang Task Force, said he's aware people in Victoria are affiliated with the Red Scorpions, but he didn't know whether they are associates or members.He said many individuals will operate under the moniker of certain groups, such as the Scorpions, in a franchise-type situation in order to intimidate and sell their drugs. "No community is immune; if there's a market for their product, they'll operate there," said Kirk.Police pressure on the Lower Mainland may have played a part in the gang's decision to expand to Vancouver Island, said Sgt. Dave Bown, head of the Greater Victoria Regional Crime Unit