A long-time member of the United Nations gang says his decision to get involved in the drug trade years ago “ruined” his life.
The former gangster, who can only be identified as C due to a sweeping publication ban, lamented his life of crime at the murder trial of Cory Vallee in B.C. Supreme Court on Thursday.
C testified about getting caught up in criminal activity as a high school student after members of the Lotus and Viet Ching gangs moved into his neighbourhood.
With his new gangster friends, he was involved in battles with teenaged rivals, including the Duhre brothers — three siblings who would go on to be notorious gangsters in their own right.
C testified that he stole cars and was involved in armed robberies, although he did some legitimate work once he graduated from high school.
But he started selling cocaine on the side, eventually giving up his day job to work full-time in the drug trade.
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C told Justice Janice Dillon that he regretted that decision.
“It ruined my life. I could have been way more successful with no stress,” he testified. “I would have more money. I wouldn’t have regrets. I wouldn’t have the depression, stress and worry.”
C testified that he was in the UN gang from about 2000 to 2016 and ended up in a leadership position.
Dillon heard that C is expected to provide “eyewitness” testimony related to the May 9, 2008 murder of Jonathan Barber, an innocent stereo installer who was shot to death after being mistaken for a Bacon brother.
And he is expected to provide evidence related to the February 2009 murder of Bacon pal Kevin LeClair.
An undated handout photo of Kevin LeClair, the deceased associate of the Bacon brothers. LeClair was gunned down in a hail of bullets at a strip mall in Langley, BC on Friday, February 6, 2009.
Vallee is charged with conspiracy to kill the Bacon brothers over several months in 2008 and 2009, as well as first-degree murder in the LeClair slaying.
C is the second former UN member to testify against Vallee for the Crown.
Another man, who can only be identified as D, spent more than two weeks on the stand.
C went through pages and pages of photographs, identifying men he said were either in the gang or were its associates. Asked how he knew each, in almost every case, he said they “sell drugs.”
Many of the names have already been heard in Vallee’s trial and in other earlier related trials.
But D also identified slain gangster Gurmit Dhak as a UN associate and Dhak’s close friend Billy Tran as a UN member.
The trial continues.
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