No decision in bail hearing for alleged B.C. gangsters

The bail hearing for two men believed to be linked to a gang war in southeast Vancouver concluded Monday afternoon at Vancouver provincial court with no resolution.

Udam Sanghera, 58, and co-accused Gordon Taylor, 42, are charged with multiple weapons offences.

Judge Jeanne Watchuk placed a ban on publication of evidence on the bail application for Sanghera.

Police allege the gang he ran is in a bitter turf war with the rival Buttar-Malli gang.

"Udham Sanghera is the head of the 15-member Sanghera crime group, which operates in southeast Vancouver," Vancouver police Insp. Mike Porteous said during a news conference last Friday.

"That family is in direct conflict with the Bhuttar-Malli group and this conflict has over the past couple of years resulted in close to 100 shootings in that area of the city."

Sanghera has not been charged in connection with any shootings.

There were no publication bans issued on Taylor’s bail hearing because his lawyer, Sheldon Goldberg, contends Taylor has nothing to hide.

"They’re looking for a scapegoat," Goldberg said. "They haven’t found the persons who have committed all these murders in the Lower Mainland — they’re not even close, it looks like."

In court, a special gang prosecutor alleged Taylor attended a meeting to bomb a rival gangster’s home and also arranged to buy four handguns in February.

Goldberg countered that his client was set up by police and lured into buying the guns.

Wally Oppal, B.C.’s attorney general, said he is hoping the judge will take the charges of each of the men into consideration when making a decision on whether to grant bail.

"If a person has seven or eight or nine outstanding charges and some of those involve weapons, then I think the judges have to look carefully about the reputation of the system," Oppal said.

The men remain in jail while they await their next hearing, scheduled for Wednesday.