Two Surrey residents are facing gun and drug charges after Mounties raided a home last month in connection with an investigation into the ongoing gang conflict.

Abdul Shaheel Khan, 22, and Shastina Shrena Kumar, 21, have each been charged with trafficking and six firearms counts.

Khan remains in pretrial custody until his next court appearance on Jan. 12, while Kumar has been released on $4,000 bail.

Before the new counts were laid, Khan was already facing two trafficking charges related to allegations he sold drugs in July 2016. And he was convicted in 2014 of possession of a controlled substance.

Surrey RCMP Cpl. Scotty Schumann said that the investigation is continuing and more charges are expected.

He said Surrey RCMP drug officers began their probe into alleged trafficking in Surrey and Langley in October 2017.

“Officers gathered evidence throughout November and December and on December 13, 2017, a search warrant was executed at a residence in the 8600-block of 144A Street in Surrey,” Schumann said.

Police seized an SKS rifle, a sawed-off shotgun, a revolver, ammunition, drug processing materials and equipment, and two vehicles believed to be used in a dial-a-dope ring, Schumann said.

Police also executed a search warrant on Dec. 21 at a second residence in the 18200-block of 83^rd Ave. and seized three bolt-action rifles, a shotgun, an imitation firearm, more ammunition and a stolen vehicle.

Another man was arrested, but has been released on a promise to appear in court to face charges at a later date.

“Our drug section investigators, supported by our specialized sections and partners, continue to target dial-a-dope trafficking operations that pose a significant risk to public safety,” Supt. Shawn Gill said. “Any time we can remove drugs and weapons of this nature from our communities it is considered a success. We continue to engage in a number of enforcement, prevention, and education strategies to disrupt the illegal drug trade and associated violence that we have seen in our city and across the Lower Mainland.”

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Manricco “Ricco” Sansalone, 26, died from gunshot wounds on Dec. 22, after making his way to Ridge Meadows hospital from nearby Kin Park, where the shooting is believed to have occurred at about 6 a.m.

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said at the time that the victim was known to police, but did not release his name or other details about why police were familiar with him.

Cpl. Meghan Foster confirmed Friday that Sansalone was the man killed and said that his name was initially withheld by police for investigative reasons.

She said she had no comment on any connections Sansalone had to the Hells Angels.

MAPLE RIDGE. December 22 2017. After a targeted shooting a RCMP officer places an evidence marker at the 21800 block of 121 ave, Maple Ridge, December 22 2017. Gerry Kahrmann / PNG staff photo) ( Prov / Sun News ) 

IHIT media officer, Cpl. David Lee, said earlier Friday that the Sansalone “investigation is ongoing and we cannot comment on the motive to protect any future court proceedings.”

The young man had no criminal record, according to the online court database.

But his father Joseph Sansalone and great-uncle Vincenzo “Jimmy” Sansalone are both members of the notorious biker gang’s Haney chapter.

Vincenzo was convicted in Ontario several years ago of trafficking GHB after police there seized a large shipment that had been sent from B.C. to a Toronto Hells Angels prospect. He was sentenced to six years in jail.

Sansalone’s B.C. co-accused, United Nations gangster Omid Bayani disappeared in September 2011 while out on bail in the case. He was sentenced in absentia to seven years and has not resurfaced since.

Retired police biker expert Andy Richards said the Hells Angels often get involved when someone connected to them is targeted.

“Very clearly this young man had very close family ties to the Hells Angels. And given how the Hells Angels and organized crime deals with the murders of family members, there could very likely be club interest in this and you know, club related repercussions,” said Richards, now CEO of Spire Secure Logistics.

Hells Angels spokesman Ricky Ciarniello did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

Sansalone’s Jan. 4 funeral attracted Hells Angels wearing their “colours” — the back leather vest emblazoned with the gang’s patch.

In his obituary last week, Sansalone’s family said that he spent last summer fighting wildfires in the B.C. interior, and he was looking forward to starting a millwright apprenticeship this year.

“We’ll forever miss Ricco’s gentle nature and his ability to light up a room with his smile and contagious laughter,” the tribute said. “Ricco loved his family and would always be willing to drop his plans to help family or friends in need.”

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That is just one of the pieces of circumstantial evidence that should be used to convict Thomas Duong, Crown prosecutor Joe Bellows argued in closing submissions Tuesday.

Duong is on trial in Richmond Provincial Court for attempted murder in the Aug. 21, 2015 shooting in Richmond’s Dover Park. A second accused, gangster Sahand Askari, disappeared after the shooting and is believed to have left the country.  

Sahand Askari

Pouyan was struck in the face and chest just after 11 p.m. that night, but managed to make his way across Westminster Highway to seek help at a local gas station.

He refused to cooperate with police.

A police officer in the vicinity at the time followed the trial of blood from the park to the Town Pantry where Pouyan sought help.

Bellows said that while the evidence in the case is circumstantial, when it is all put together, it proves Duong’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Duong and Askari were under police surveillance both before and on the day that Pouyan was shot.

“Surveillance evidence establishes that the accused, Sahand Askari and Matin Pouyan, were associated to one another. They were seen in each other’s company, seen talking, riding in each other’s vehicle, and embracing,” Bellows said.

Police had installed devices inside Askari’s Mercedes to track the vehicle and record audio both inside and outside of the car.

Askari picked Duong up at his apartment at 5111 Brighouse Way about 10:34 p.m., Bellows said.

The Mercedes stopped for several minutes on River Road, where Bellows said the accused were making final preparations for the hit on Pouyan.

During the drive, someone in the car says “ready” twice. Bellows said the accused was actually saying: “You ready, you ready.”

“It is submitted that what they are discussing is the anticipated shooting of Pouyan at Dover Park, and their level of readiness to carry out that act,” Bellows said.

He said the comments indicate the shooting was premeditated.

At 10:41 p.m., the Mercedes left River Road and drove toward Dover Park, circling the entire park once before stopping on the south portion of Dover Crescent, Bellows said.

An officer nearby at the time saw the parked Mercedes and saw Pouyan’s vehicle arriving just before 11 p.m., Bellows said.

There were no witnesses to the shooting inside the park, although residents in the area testified about hearing “popping sounds” and then someone crying.

Bellows said one of the Mercedes recordings from 11:03 p.m. that night captures “three gunshots, a fourth gunshot, and the sound of a person screaming in pain.”

“It is submitted that this is the sound of four shots being fired at Pouyan, at least one of which struck him, followed by him screaming in pain,” he said.

Both surveillance and tracking evidence shows the Mercedes leaving the park area at about 11:06 p.m. and driving to a parking lot on Westminster Highway, Bellows said.

One of the men can be heard in a recorded conversation saying, “Where is your case to put the laundry?”

Bellows said Askari and Duong were talking about discarding the clothing they wore during the shooting.

Both are captured on video placing items in a bag and handing them to a man who had earlier been seen at Duong’s apartment building and who took a taxi to the same parking lot, Bellows said.

The Mercedes left the parking lot and drove back to Brighouse where it was parked at 11:23 p.m.

Bellows said that when Duong arrived home “he was not carrying the bag that he had been carrying when he left at 10:33 p.m. to join Askari.”

Police arrested Duong about 2 a.m. the next morning.

His lawyer, Alan Gold, is expected to complete his closing submissions Wednesday.

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Across Metro Vancouver Wednesday, at least a dozen people accused of firearms crimes appeared in provincial courthouses.

Four of them were in Vancouver courtrooms on charges that included possession of a firearm without a licence, possession of a firearm contrary to a court order and attempted murder with a firearm.

Three others appeared in Surrey on counts that included robbery with a firearm and possession of a loaded restricted gun. Two more were on the court list in North Vancouver for firearms charges. Another two gun cases were being heard in Richmond. And one man appeared in Port Coquitlam provincial court charged with robbery using a firearm.

The large number of firearms prosecutions demonstrates the relative ease with which criminals can get their hands on guns today, says former B.C. solicitor general Kash Heed.

For a few hundred dollars, even street-level drug dealers can buy guns, creating the potential for deadly violence like the shootout that led to the death of 15-year-old Coquitlam student Alfred Wong in Vancouver Saturday, Heed said.

“The access to firearms is relatively easy for anyone that is motivated to get one. These firearms are from outside of Canada or they are taken during burglaries here in Canada,” said Heed, a longtime Vancouver police officer and former West Vancouver police chief.

“There is a market for this kind of commodity and most of that market goes to the individuals that are involved in gang activity or drug activity.”

Drug trafficker Kevin Whiteside also died in Saturday’s shooting, after exchanging gunfire with someone else along a busy stretch of Broadway. Wong was struck by a stray bullet while riding as a passenger in his parents’ car, which happened to be passing by as the shots were exchanged near Ontario Street.

Vancouver police investigators continue to hunt for the other suspect or suspects.

Whiteside, 23, had firearms convictions and was under a court-ordered lifetime ban from possessing a gun.

It’s a ban that he breached in 2015, resulting in a three-month jail sentence. And it was a ban he breached again Saturday when he fired away before getting fatally struck himself.

Heed said that years ago, police would only find guns to seize in mid-level gangs or in the upper echelons of organized crime. 

“But what we have found in the last few years is that people at all levels of the crime structure have access to guns now,” he said.

“These individuals, once they have a gun strapped to their hip, they feel invincible and they don’t have any qualms whatsoever using that gun to settle disputes.”

Heed said the B.C. government needs to move more quickly on recommendations introduced last fall to curb gun violence.

In November, the B.C. Task Force on Illegal Firearms made 37 recommendations to tackle gun and gang violence.

Solicitor General Mike Farnworth said at the time that the government would immediately begin working on recommendations to expand the anti-gang Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit to lead a provincial illegal-firearms strategy, as well as create a central firearms intelligence hub to analyze data from police agencies and partners.

Farnworth could be not reached Wednesday for comment on the progress of those recommendations.

But CFSEU Sgt. Brenda Winpenny said the work is already underway.

“The government has invested in CFSEU, enabling us to increase our capacity to investigate crimes more specifically in the area of firearms illegally in possession of organized crime groups,” Winpenny said.

The new money has been used to set up an anti-gun trafficking task force within the anti-gang agency, she said.

Police have seen a shift in the origin of B.C. guns over the years. At one point, most firearms in the province were smuggled in from the United States. 

As of 2016, most B.C. criminals were getting their guns in Canada. Some were stolen from individuals or businesses. Others were bought by “straw purchasers” – people not on police radar who are paid to get a gun licence and make legal firearm purchases on behalf of a criminal.

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When the United Nations gang was hunting the Bacon brothers and their fellow Red Scorpions a decade ago, it was not your average murder conspiracy, a prosecutor said in B.C. Supreme Court on Thursday.

In fact, shootings and murders that went on for months could more accurately be described as a war, Crown Alex Burton said in closing submissions at the Cory Vallee murder trial.

“We have an unusual set of circumstances here. We essentially have a war going on between these two groups,” Burton said. “They are almost like tit-for-tat killings going back and forth.”

Vallee is charged with conspiring to kill Jonathan, Jarrod and Jamie Bacon between Jan. 1, 2008 and Feb. 8, 2009, as well as the Feb. 6, 2009 murder of their associate Kevin LeClair.

Over months of evidence presented last year, four former UN gangsters-turned Crown witnesses pointed the finger at Vallee, telling Justice Janice Dillon that he was brought in as a hitman to kill the Bacons.

Vallee’s lawyers are expected to attack the credibility of those witnesses during their closing arguments next week, pointing to their admitted criminal histories.

But Burton told Dillon on Thursday that there is corroborating evidence for the testimony of the men, known only as A, B, C and D due to a sweeping publication ban.

He pointed to intercepted conversations between gang founder Clay Roueche and several UN members who earlier pleaded guilty to their roles in the conspiracy.

“The acts and declarations of the co-conspirators provide context for the evidence that the primary role of the accused in this event was that of a shooter or a hitman,” Burton said.

“Hitman is not a term of art. It is just a word used to describe somebody’s role. It is not a television character necessarily, who has all these tools. It just means that it was the person’s job and that’s what the Crown is trying to prove in this case.”

Burton also said “evidence that comes from co-conspirators assists in establishing the facts and provides the background and foundation for the evidence that (Vallee) was responsible for the death of Kevin LeClair.” 

Jamie Bacon (left) and Kevin LeClair, who was shot to death in 2009.

Roueche was captured on wiretap talking to UN member Ion Kroitoru while at the W Hotel in Montreal on April 18 and 19, 2008, he said. 

“Those intercepts from Montreal, we say are objective and independent proof that not only was there a conspiracy to kill the Bacons and Red Scorpions, but that somebody named Frankie had been hired by Roueche to impose a debt, which I believe is the language used in the intercept itself,” Burton said.

He said the Crown’s position is that Vallee was known both as “Frankie” and “Panther” in UN circles.

Burton noted that Roueche and Kroitoru were complaining that Frankie was not getting the job done and was not available 24 hours a day for the UN’s business.

Other intercepted conversations from inside Roueche’s Coquitlam apartment in 2008 also related to the plot against the Bacons, Burton said.

“They discuss subjects that are consistent with the conspiracy — again the evidence (A, B, C and D) are talking about — blocker cars, conversations about the Bacon and (Red Scorpion) vehicles. They are discussing various murders and in fact in one of the intercepts there is a conversation about terrorizing the Bacons,” he said.

The conversations took place before Roueche was arrested in the U.S. in May 2008 on drug smuggling and money laundering charges. He later pleaded guilty and is serving a 30-year sentence.

Kroitoru pleaded guilty to conspiracy in 2013 and died last year of a heart attack while living in a Toronto halfway house.

The prosecution team is expected to complete its closing arguments Monday, after which Vallee’s defence team will have four days to make submissions on his behalf.

The trial is taking place at the Vancouver Law Courts.

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Senior police officers interviewed by Postmedia this week confirmed that the recent gun violence, including the fatal shooting of an innocent 15-year-old bystander, is as bad as the deadly gang war between the Red Scorpions and the United Nations gang that plagued the region in 2008 and 2009.

High school student Alfred Wong and his parents had just finished a Saturday evening dinner in Vancouver on Jan. 13 and were driving home to Coquitlam, along Broadway, when Alfred was struck by a stray bullet from a gunfight on the busy street. He died two days later in hospital. He will be remembered at a Coquitlam funeral service today as the VPD continues to hunt for suspects.

Also killed that evening was Downtown Eastside drug dealer Kevin Whiteside, who exchanged gunfire with his killer.

Whiteside was not a big player in the Vancouver drug trade. But the current gun violence has permeated every level of organized crime in B.C., from street dealers to gang leaders.

B.C. Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said police are doing everything they can to fight back. His government is acting on recommendations from a task force on illegal firearms that could help curb the violence, including a new database to track gangster guns and increased use of civil forfeiture for those caught with them.

“The police, I think, they are doing an amazing job. They are trying to get on top of this as best they can,” Farnworth said. “There are some recommendations that I think are really helpful.”

But Farnworth said the federal government also needs to get more involved in finding solutions.

“At the federal level, they need to understand that this is not just a B.C. problem or a Lower Mainland problem, but it is a national problem and I think they need to be stepping up more.”

In November, federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale announced at RCMP headquarters in Surrey that the federal government would spend an additional $327 million over five years to combat gang and gun violence.

More than two months later as the violence escalates, B.C. has not been able to get any of the money pledged, Farnworth said.

“We have requested the details. But we are still waiting to find out exactly what it is and how we are going to get it,” he said.

A major part of the conflict over the last year can be tracked back to drug traffickers aligned with people on either the RS or UN side of a decade ago.

Vancouver police Supt. Mike Porteous explained that those linked to the RS were known as the Grewals, the Kangs and the Dhaliwals after leaders of each faction. They had carved up the Lower Mainland into areas where each ran dial-a-dope lines.

“They were traditionally at odds with the Sandhu-Sidhu group, which is more of an Abbotsford group,” Porteous said.

Those loyal to Jimi Sandhu, who has since been deported to India, and his associate Sandeep Sidhu, were connected to the UN side.

Underlings in both groups began battling several years ago on Townline Hill in Abbotsford, leading to assaults, shootings and murders. The violence spilled over into other communities and even to Edmonton, where Sidhu’s brother Navdeep, 24, and Harman Mangat, 22, were shot to death in January 2017.

In recent years, Gavinder Grewal, one of the leaders of the RS-aligned traffickers, started his own organization that he called the Brothers Keepers. He took the name from a line uttered by Wesley Snipes’ gangster character in the 1991 movie New Jack City.

Grewal got his new gang name tattooed across his upper chest in stylized script.

Gang officers began seeing others with the same tattoo in mid-2017 while Grewal was still in pre-trial custody, charged with manslaughter.

He was released on strict bail conditions on Sept. 27, 2017, and moved to the 25th floor of a North Vancouver high-rise.

Then his Brothers Keepers began to turn on each other.

“The big issue that has occurred that has probably caused a whole bunch of the violence that’s been going on is that there’s been a split,” Porteous said. “Gavin Grewal was fighting with everybody. He had specifically split off from the Kang group internally and that had caused a lot of violence.”

Someone shot Grewal’s former allies, Randy and Gary Kang, on Oct. 27 in Surrey. Randy was killed and Gary survived. The Vancouver brothers were active on the city’s south slope for years. The drug trade and the violence know no boundaries. 

The shootings and murders across the region have continued. Most — but not all — are connected to the same conflict, Porteous said. 

“I think for sure they are tit-for-tat retaliation. You don’t have to be a genius to figure that out.”

Grewal, himself, was found slain inside his rented penthouse apartment on Dec. 22. The killer managed to get into the secure high rise building and finish the 30-year-old off. His body was found just before 8:30 p.m. He was due to go to trial this month for the fatal Abbotsford shooting of Mandy Johnson in July 2010.

The volatility of the ever-changing groups makes policing even more challenging, Abbotsford Police Deputy Chief Mike Serr said.

“Now you are seeing a lot more in that mid-level to lower-level groups that are changing alliances very quickly which makes things very unstable for us,” he said. “Once they switch sides, once they change alliances, they bring with them a massive amount of intelligence that is very valuable to the new group, which again poses a lot of challenges to us.”

The intel can be used by the new group to hunt a rival.

Even gangsters who are in jail “still seem to have a power base,” Serr said.

“There is still this large group of new up and comers that are emerging. We are still seeing that traditional base from 10 years ago that has significant influence in the current gang conflict.”

Abbotsford Police are implementing a new gang crime unit “that will be specifically dedicated to managing the gang conflict and try to disrupt,” Serr said.

“We are very proactive in Abbotsford with doing regular daily curfew checks for the people who have conditions. We are checking on a daily basis, making sure they are in compliance. If we can find any way to put these guys back in jail, we are absolutely going to take that advantage and do that.”

Serr, Porteous and Sgt. Brenda Winpenny, of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, said all police agencies are working closely together to deal with the conflict, disrupting violence before it happens based on intelligence they’re collecting and sharing in live time.

Winpenny said that CFSEU “has taken the lead on a more robust approach to tackle the current conflict,” including targeting “those people that are the highest risk and we can focus on trying to suppress some of the violence that is going on on the streets.”

CFSEU is helping 130 “high-risk individuals” attempt to change their lives through intervention and exiting programs.

But Winpenny said it is not just up to police to come up with solutions.

“I think it is important for the public to know that it is not just a policing issue. It is an entire community issue, that communities have to get on board; parents, teachers, government, community support agencies need to be on board for this to be successful.”

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Notorious B.C. Hells Angel Larry Amero has been charged with conspiracy to kill gangster rivals Sandip Duhre and Sukhveer Dhak, who died months apart in targeted 2012 shootings.

Amero, 40, was arrested in Ottawa on Thursday by Vancouver police officers, with the assistance of Ottawa police and the Ontario Provincial Police biker enforcement unit.

He will be brought to B.C. to face the conspiracy charges, Vancouver police said Thursday afternoon.

Convicted gang hitman Dean Michael Wiwchar, 32, has also been charged with one count of murder in Duhre’s January 2012 assassination, as well as conspiracy to commit the murder of Dhak in November 2012.

While the Duhre murder charge against Wiwchar is new, he was identified as the suspected hitman when he was on trial in B.C. Supreme Court in 2015 on several firearms charges.

Justice Gregory Bowden said in his ruling convicting Wiwchar on the gun counts that Vancouver police had linked a getaway car used in the Duhre hit to Wiwchar and that witnesses described the shooter as having the same height and build as Wiwchar.

And police had an informant who said someone named Alkhalil had paid Wiwchar. Investigators later found $140,000 in Wiwchar‘s safe deposit box, Bowden noted.   

Dean Wiwchar, charged in the 2012 Sandip Duhre murder

Postmedia has learned that Wiwchar was recently injured in a stabbing inside federal prison.

Rabih “Robby” Alkhalil, an associate of both Amero and Wiwchar, was already facing charges in the Duhre murder and has made several B.C. court appearances.

Both Wiwchar and Alkhalil were convicted last year of first-degree murder for the June 2012 execution of John Raposo in Toronto’s Little Italy. Their Ontario trial heard that Alkhalil brought Wiwchar in, describing him in a text message as the “best hitter.”

Wiwchar dressed like a construction worker with a reflective vest and dust mask and wore a wig to kill Raposo outside the Sicilian Sidewalk Cafe.

Until last August, Amero was charged in Quebec as an alleged leader of an international cocaine smuggling ring. But his charges were stayed after his lawyer argued that the case had taken too long to get to trial. 

Amero, a B.C. longshoreman and member of the West Point chapter of the Hells Angels, was seriously injured in the August 2011 Kelowna shooting that left Red Scorpion leader Jonathan Bacon dead. Independent Soldiers gangster James Riach was in the targeted Porsche Cayenne with Bacon and Amero, but escaped injury.

Three men linked to the United Nations gang — Jason McBride, Michael Jones and Jujhar Khun-Khun — are currently on trial for the 2011 shooting. Sukh Dhak is alleged to have ordered the Kelowna hit, according to evidence at their 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.

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.

Amero was once part of the White Rock Hells Angels, but in 2012 moved over to the new West Point chapter, based in Langley. He was also part of the formation of a gang alliance called the Wolf Pack, made up of some Hells Angels, some Red Scorpions and some members of the Independent Soldiers.

After he was released from a Quebec jail last August, Amero settled in Ottawa, but had been returning to B.C. for brief visits.

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On Monday, investigators from the VPD’s Organized Crime Section arrested Vancouver resident Matthew Navas-Rivas, 27. And they earlier arrested gangster  Derek James Stephens, an associate of the Independent Soldiers gang.

Both men are facing 39 gun counts.

Court records indicate that all the counts relate to events on July 8, 2017.

Navas-Rivas was set to appear in Vancouver provincial court Tuesday afternoon. Stephens, who was arrested in December, is due back in court on Feb. 6.

Vancouver Police say the charges stem from a probe called Project Tactic.

“As this matter is now before the courts and subject to a publication ban, the VPD has nothing further for release at this time,” VPD Sgt. Jason Robillard said in a news release.

Both men have criminal histories.

Navas-Rivas was convicted in 2013 of a home invasion three years earlier in which he held a terrified Vancouver family at gunpoint.

He was sentenced to three years and three months in jail on top of the 33 months credit received for pre-trial custody. He was also banned from owning or possessing firearms for 10 years.

Stephens was sentenced in 2015 to four years  in jail for his role in a gang kidnapping orchestrated by associates and members of the Independent Soldiers gang. Minus credit for time served, his net sentence was 200 days plus probation.

Also charged in the kidnapping was IS gangster Jesse Margison, but he was unable to go to trial after suffering brain damage in a life-altering beating in North Fraser pretrial jail.

Stephens was not part of the actual kidnapping of the victim, but helped get tracking devices and set up the online tracking account used to follow and capture the victim. He also got restraints and rented the minivan used in the kidnapping.

In 2012, he was sentenced to 11 months in jail for occupying a vehicle where there was a firearm. His co-accused in that 2010 case was Christopher Reddy, who was shot to death in 2011.

In 2009, he was convicted in Vernon for possessing a firearm and was fined $650, plus given five-year firearms prohibition.

During Project Tactic, the VPD seized guns, more than 1,200 rounds of ammunition, multiple high-capacity magazines, silencers, balaclavas, zap-straps, a Taser, and handcuffs.

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Four former United Nations gang members who testified against alleged hitman Cory Vallee were trying to “save their own skin” and should not be believed, defence lawyer Eric Gottardi said Tuesday.

At the start of his team’s closing arguments, Gottardi said the “linchpin” witnesses, who can be identified only as A, B, C and D due to a sweeping publication ban, “escaped punishment for murders” and got other perks by co-operating with the Crown.

“They did not just get money. They received a small fortune,” he told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Janice Dillon. “They did not just learn about the crimes, they participated in them as accomplices. They did not just collude – they researched and studied the Crown disclosure and related media reports.”

Vallee is charged with conspiring to kill Jonathan, Jarrod and Jamie Bacon between Jan. 1, 2008, and Feb. 8, 2009, as well as the Feb. 6, 2009, murder of their associate, Kevin LeClair.

Over months of evidence last year, the former UN gangsters-turned-Crown witnesses said Vallee was a UN hitman brought in to kill the Bacons and their fellow Red Scorpions. And they testified that Vallee was one of two triggermen who shot LeClair with an AR-15 outside a Langley grocery store on a busy Friday afternoon.

But Gottardi said Vallee should not be convicted on the basis of the testimony of admitted criminals.

“The Crown’s evidence in this case falls markedly short of establishing that Cory Vallee was the person who shot and killed Kevin LeClair. It falls markedly short of establishing that Cory Vallee was an out-of-town hitman named Frankie. And it even fails to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Vallee was a full-fledged member of the UN or the conspiracy until after the indictment period, if at all,” Gottardi said.

He pointed to the fact that two of the witnesses, A and D, originally told police Vallee was the shooter who killed Jonathan Barber on May 9, 2008, when the UN mistook the stereo installer for one of the Bacon brothers.

Then when B and C decided to co-operate with police in 2016, they told a different story, identifying the Barber killer as UN member Barzan Tilli-Choli.

By then Tilli-Choli had already pleaded guilty to conspiracy and could not be retried as the murderer. He has since served his sentence and been deported to Iraq.

“Not so long ago, Cory Vallee was on trial for two murders. It should not be lost on anyone that based on the lies told by (D) and (A), Mr. Vallee would have been at risk of facing two life sentences,” Gottardi said.

Then B and C came forward “who say someone completely different killed Mr. Barber — a person who at this stage was not convicted of that murder nor ever will be because these witnesses waited until they had to save their own skin to come forward.”

In terms of the LeClair hit, there was more evidence suggesting witness C was one of the shooters than there was against Vallee, Gottardi said.

“We started out submissions by asking a question: Who killed Kevin LeClair? In our respectful submissions, the weight of the objective and circumstantial evidence (excluding the bald assertions of the accomplices) suggests that (C) is the most likely person to have shot Kevin LeClair,” Gottardi said. 

Kevin LeClair’s bullet-ridden truck after he was fatally shot at the Thunderbird Village Mall on Feb. 6, 2009.

“We do not know for sure and with respect we may never know. We know one thing. It was the UN gang that was responsible. We know (B) participated.” 

The defence is also claiming the Crown has not proven that a person referred to as Frankie and Panther by other UN members in intercepted conversations is in fact Vallee.

“If anyone were to ask any of us who have sat through this trial and heard the evidence, can you say definitively, can you say beyond a reasonable doubt, that you are confident as to who pulled the trigger on that AR-15? The answer on this evidence, with these witnesses, has to be no,” Gottardi said.

“We have strong suspicion, or a well-informed theory, but it does not give rise to the legal certitude necessary to find Mr. Vallee guilty of murder.”

The defence team is expected to take a week to deliver its closing arguments, before Dillon reserves her decision in the case.

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