Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said the arrest of 14 gangsters linked to the Red Scorpions and the Kang group “sends a very strong message” to those caught up in organized crime in B.C.

Farnworth praised the work of the Vancouver Police Department and other agencies Friday after 92 charges were laid against the gangsters, including participating in a criminal organization, drug trafficking, conspiracy and possession of firearms and even explosives.

“This sends a very strong message to these gangs that they are going to get caught, they are going to get nailed and there are going to be consequences,” Farnworth said Friday. “And they are going to find out that if they stay involved, they face not just jail time, but also civil forfeiture.”

Among those charged this week with participating in a criminal organization are Red Scorpion leader Kyle Latimer, his dad Craig and five members of the Kang family — brothers Gary and Sam, along with their parents Gurcharn and Mohanbir and uncle Ranbir.

Vancouver Police Supt. Mike Porteous noted a number of unindicted co-conspirators are believed to be involved in the drug-trafficking organization, including jailed gangsters Jamie Bacon and Cody Haevischer, both of the Red Scorpions.

Bacon is awaiting trial next month for counselling to commit murder. Haevischer was convicted of murder in the 2007 Surrey Six slayings and is serving a life sentence.

Porteous said the jailed gangsters are believed to have been participating in the criminal organization from behind bars — something Farnworth said is “concerning.”

The VPD-led investigation, dubbed Project Territory, is “a major blow to Lower Mainland gangsters in one of the most successful gang crime investigations in B.C. history,” Porteous said.

Those arrested have been linked to shootings and murders in the region, he said, adding that police have stopped gangsters on their way to kill rivals.

“We have had an ongoing violent conflict. Many shootings and murders in the region are attributed to the conflict that the Kang-Latimer group has been participating in the last few years,” Porteous said.

Project Territory was one of several investigations by a task force struck by the VPD in March 2017 and later joined by several municipal police forces, the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit and the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team.

Territory led to seizure of 93 firearms, a pressure cooker bomb found last month in Vancouver, about 50 kilograms of fentanyl, cocaine and other drugs, $833,000 cash, jewelry worth $800,000 and collector cars valued at another $350,000.

Police displayed several pieces of gold jewelry featuring scorpions, paintings of giant red scorpions and skulls, as well as a black scorpion-shaped metal table base and a gold-plated Desert Eagle 44 magnum pistol.

Vancouver Staff Sgt. Lisa Byrne, team commander of Project Territory, said the arrests were “very significant.”

“My hope is that it will have an incredible impact on the gang violence that we are seeing on the Lower Mainland,” she said.

She noted that the Kang group had previously been part of the Brothers Keepers gang, but had turned on its former associates.

“I think this could have a significant impact on the region’s violence.”

During the investigation, police were troubled to see gangsters in conflict with each other sometimes living metres apart in high-end rentals.

In June, Postmedia revealed that one of the unindicted co-conspirators named Friday, Omid Mashinchi had been leasing suites to gangsters. He just pleaded guilty in Boston to money laundering.

The gangsters were leasing suites “because these properties contain security features which they believe keep them safe mostly from rival gangs,” Byrne said.

“My team found this really disturbing because we had rival gang members housed within dozens of meters of each other and the potential for spontaneous violence and gunplay was obviously something that was super concerning to us.”

The suites were also being used to process fentanyl, cook other drugs, store guns and even the explosive device seized July 19, 2018, Byrne said.

The suites were also being used to host parties.

“Several of these parties are also linked to violent events where drive by shootings occurred, assaults occurred or murders occurred,” Byrne said.

RCMP Supt. Brian Gateley, acting CFSEU chief, said the arrests may leave a vacuum that other gangs will try to fill.

“There is no question that this investigation taking out the Kangs and the Red Scorpions and Kyle Latimer is going to leave a void,” he said.

But CFSEU has the ability to move resources to where they are most needed so that any up and coming gangs can be targeted, he explained.

“I think we have a pretty good understanding of the competing groups that are operating within the province here.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

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