Red Scorpions

A violent drug-trafficking criminal organization, the Red Scorpions gang was formed about 2000, allegedly by Quang Vinh Le while he was incarcerated in Willingdon Youth Detention Centre.

Le was beaten by a group of Korean youths. In response, he called in more than 20 friends to help him in an attack that resulted in victim Richard Jung’s death. Le was originally convicted of second-degree murder in the death, but won a new trial on appeal, then pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Some of those also convicted went on to join the multi-ethnic street gang whose members sport scorpion tattoos and are involved in drug trafficking in Coquitlam and other Lower Mainland suburbs.

Among them was Eddie Narong, who also pleaded guilty to Jung’s manslaughter. Narong testified against some of his co-accused. Narong, 22, would die in the infamous Surrey Six murders allegedly committed by members of the Red Scorpions on Oct. 19, 2007, when six men were shot to death in a Surrey highrise. Two were uninvolved bystanders.

The Bacon brothers of Abbotsford rose to prominence in this gang with the eldest, Jonathan — killed this weekend in Kelowna — being identified as its leader. Jonathan was awaiting trial for drugs and weapons offences. In 2006, he was shot several times while in his parents’ driveway.

Jarrod Bacon is facing a number of drug charges.

The Red Scorpions have been involved in a long-standing war with the United Nations gang.

The United Nations Gang

The United Nations is another multi-ethnic gang. Police believe it was founded in the late 1990s by Clay Roueche, 35, of Chilliwack from among his high school friends. It developed a rigid organizational structure like the Hells Angels.

The gang has also made enemies of the Hells Angels and Independent Soldiers.

Roueche is serving a 30-year sentence in the United States for smuggling marijuana and cocaine across the border.

With Roueche in jail, Conor D’Monte, 33, an original member of the gang, was identified by police as leader of the UN. D’Monte is a fugitive after being charged in January with the 2009 first-degree murder of Red Scorpion member Kevin LeClair.

Charged with him is purported hit man Cory Vallee, 34, who has also fled.

These two, along with six others linked to the UN gang, are also charged with plotting to kill the Bacon brothers and their associates.

Independent Soldiers

This the newest of the major street gangs, formed about six years ago from mostly young Indo-Canadian males involved in the drug trade. Its roots go back to the notorious Bindy Johal, who was killed on the dance floor of a Vancouver nightclub in 1998. The gang has spread from Vancouver, with members operating in Kelowna and Calgary. It is believed to have developed links with the Hells Angels.

Hells Angels

While the likes of the Red Scorpions, the Independent Soldiers and the UN are referred to as mid-level players, police consider the Hells Angels a top-echelon criminal organization, seen in the same light as the Mafia and the Big Circle gang.

The Hells Angels have a highly structured hierarchy, with full-patch members at the top. Below are prospects, hang­arounds, official friends and associates working their way through the ranks.

The organization today has hundreds of chapters in more than 20 countries. It has a number of established clubs in the Lower Mainland and a number of puppet clubs such as the Prince George-based Renegades. However, new biker clubs linked to the Hells Angels have been sprouting up all over the province recently, from Campbell River to Fort St. John, as the gang seeks to maintain its status

Dennis Karbovanec Red Scorpion gang member convicted last month of executing three people in the Surrey Six slayings

Red Scorpion gang member convicted last month of executing three people in the Surrey Six slayings has had two other sets of criminal charges he was facing stayed, a Crown spokesman confirmed Thursday.Neil MacKenzie said the prosecution team decided it would not be in the public interest to continue with other cases against Dennis Karbovanec, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the October 2007 killings in a Surrey highrise.Karbovanec’s surprise plea April 3 led to a life sentence with no parole eligibility for 15 years. Details of the sentencing were covered by an extraordinary ban on publication.At the time of the plea, Karbovanec was already facing several charges related to a handgun and silencer found in a secret compartment in his leased vehicle when he was stopped by Abbotsford police last October. He was wearing a body-proof vest at the time.Karbovanec was also arrested and charged in Port Coquitlam in March, along with Jonathan Bacon, with several fraud counts related to the leasing of a vehicle from Four Star Auto lease allegedly using fake documents.“Crown, in the circumstances, decided that it wasn’t in the public interest to proceed at this point with those outstanding matters,” MacKenzie said.He refused to say whether dropping the other charges was part of a plea agreement reached with Karbovanec. “I can’t really go into more detail than that,” he said. But MacKenzie said that generally-speaking Crown will consider staying charges when someone is already convicted of a more serious offence than the counts in the other cases.“It is factor Crown looks at generally as to whether the public interest requires proceeding. Any sentence imposed would end up being concurrent to the life sentence where a person has been convicted of murder,” MacKenzie said. “It is not unusual, but it doesn’t invariably happen.” Meanwhile, Bacon’s fraud charges have now been set for trial beginning Jan. 27, 2009, MacKenzie said. The day Kabovanec pleaded guilty in the Surrey Six case, Bacon’s younger brother Jamie and two other Red Scorpions – Matt Johnston and Cody Haevischer – were arrested and charged with first-degree murder in connection with the unprecedented gangland slaughter on Oct. 17, 2007.Jamie Bacon’s charges relate to the death of a young drug dealer Cory Lal in suite 1505 of the Balmoral Tower that day. Johnston and Haevischer are charged with killing Lal, his brother Michael, Eddie Narong, Ryan Bartolomeo and two innocent bystanders – Ed Schellenberg and Chris Mohan.A fifth unindicted co-conspirator has been identified in court papers only as Mr. X.
Jamie Bacon, Haevischer and Johnston remain in custody pending their next appearance in Surrey provincial court June 15.