Alleged gang leader, associate out on bail after arrest on fraud charges

One of the notorious Bacon brothers and a close associate were released on bail under strict conditions Thursday afternoon after being arrested on fraud charges.

Jonathan Bacon, 27, was apprehended overnight Wednesday in Abbotsford, east of Vancouver, and was co-operative during the arrest, Abbotsford police said Thursday.

His associate Dennis Karbovanec, 28, was arrested overnight Wednesday in Port Moody, also east of Vancouver, the RCMP said.

Both were arrested on a warrant for what RCMP called "significant fraud" alleged to have taken place in nearby Coquitlam.  

They appeared in B.C. provincial court in Port Coquitlam on Thursday morning.

CBC News has learned the conditions for bail release include 24-hour surveillance by police, a daily curfew from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m., a prohibition on contacting each other and a requirement to report to the police chief in Port Moody, where they live, once a week.

RCMP spokesman Cpl. Peter Thiessen said, although they would have liked to keep the pair in custody, they are under constant monitoring of police.

Police say Bacon and Karbovanec are members of the Red Scorpion gang, which is engaged in a violent struggle with the UN gang for control of the Lower Mainland's illegal drug trade.

Police anxious to show progress

The arrest of the two follows a wave of gun and gang violence that has swept through Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley in recent months. In the past 48 hours alone, there have been seven shootings, including two deaths.

At least 11 people have died this year in what police have described as targeted hits across the Lower Mainland.

Police have been anxious to show they are making progress in cracking down on the gangs alleged to be responsible for many of the shootings.

On the weekend, five people associated with the rival UN gang were arrested, and three were charged with attempted murder in a recent shooting outside a Surrey strip club, which police alleged targeted an associate of Bacon and Karbovanec.

Bacon brothers well-known to police

Jonathan Bacon and his two brothers, Jamie and Jarrod, are well-known to provincial law enforcement officials.

Jarrod Bacon, 25, and Jamie Bacon, 22, were arrested in May on weapons charges. They each face nine counts of firearms-related charges and are jointly charged with 15 additional firearms offences.

In the same month, B.C.'s Integrated Gang Task Force issued a public warning that the brothers were the targets of death threats and that association with them might place individuals "in a position of jeopardy."

Last June, Jonathan Bacon faced 15 drug and weapons charges related to a stash of drugs, guns and money police say they found in Bacon's Abbotsford home in 2005.

But provincial court Judge Donald Gardiner threw out all 15 charges against Bacon and two co-accused, ruling police did not have the grounds to obtain a search warrant when they made the drug bust.

In January, Jamie Bacon was shot at while driving his armoured Mercedes during the day on a busy Abbotsford street. He was reportedly wearing body armour at the time and escaped injury.

Police also recently seized another fully armoured luxury car leased by the Bacon brothers. The black BMW 745i, fitted out with bulletproof glass and heavy steel plating, was found abandoned near Prest Road and Highway 1 in Chilliwack, in the Fraser Valley east of Vancouver, police told CBC News.

Karbovanec targeted

Karbovanec is also well-known to police. He was shot and wounded in Mission, east of Vancouver, on Dec. 31 and was wearing a bulletproof vest when he walked into a hospital emergency room for treatment, according to police.

Then in February, police in Port Moody issued a similar public-safety warning that Karbovanec was an "immediate and significant threat to public safety" because he was a targeted gang member.

Also in February, Bacon's associate, Kevin LeClair, was shot while sitting behind the wheel of his pickup truck in a grocery store parking lot in Langley. He died in hospital.

The gunmen reportedly fired about 40 shots into the vehicle before fleeing.