Alleged gangster wins appeal to Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of Canada will hear the case of an accused B.C. gangster who says his charter rights were violated by police who found drugs and weapons in his car and home.

Jonathan Bacon and his associates Godwin Cheng and Rayleene Burton were arrested in August 2005 after a police surveillance team said they saw them transferring packages between vehicles.

Subsequent searches found a cache of automatic weapons, silencers, a bulletproof vest and a police uniform, as well as marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine and more than $90,000 in cash.

The three were charged with 15 counts of drugs and weapons offences.

They challenged the charges in court, arguing that Abbotsford police did not have sufficient cause to search them and therefore violated their charter rights. A provincial court judge agreed and in 2008 the charges were dismissed.

Court was told that the day before the arrests were made, a justice of the peace denied a search warrant, finding that there were not reasonable grounds.

Warrant later issued

The following day police searched their vehicles and made the arrests, saying officers had witnessed a suspected drug transaction. Abbotsford police then applied for a new search warrant, which was granted.

The Crown appealed the provincial court ruling and the B.C. Appeal Court overturned that decision in March, ordering a new trial.

The defence then applied for leave to appeal to the county's highest court. The court announced Thursday they will hear the case, but a date has yet to be set for the hearing.

Bacon is one of three brothers who police have publicly identified as gangsters. His brother Jamie is facing a first-degree murder charge in connection with the deaths of six people in a Surrey highrise apartment in October 2007.

The gang that police have said the Bacon brothers control, the Red Scorpions, was at the centre of a bloody gang war that played out on the streets of Metro Vancouver two years ago.