8 alleged UN gang members charged

Supt. Doug Kiloh, of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, and Insp. Kevin Hackett, of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, announced the charges at a news conference in Delta, B.C., Friday morning.

The charges relate to the attempted murders of Jonathan, Jamie and Jarrod Bacon and their Red Scorpion gang associates. At the press conference, police said they had been investigating the UN gang since 2006.

Of the eight alleged gang members charged, three are in custody while five were expected to be arrested in the near future.

Clay Franklin Roueche, currently incarcerated in the United States, has been named as an unindicted co-conspirator. Police said charges of conspiracy to commit murder against him might be laid at a later date.

Hackett said the charges are significant because police have now managed to take down the leadership of the gang.

Kiloh said the UN gang has been behind much of the violence in recent years, but he added even with the gang's leadership taken out, the violence would continue.

During the course of this investigation, police seized cash, drugs, guns and 100,000 rounds of ammunition, including grenades.

This is the latest in a series of arrests related to the Lower Mainland's ongoing gang turf war.

In April, three alleged members of the Red Scorpions were arrested in connection with the execution-style killings of six people, including two bystanders, at a Surrey highrise in 2007.

In March, two alleged members of the UN gang were arrested, and nine alleged members of the Sanghera gang have also been arrested in recent months.

More than 20 people, mostly young men, have been killed in shootings this year that police have linked to a violent gang war for control of the Lower Mainland's illegal drug trade.