Strict police watch on Bacon brother goes lax

An alleged gang leader out on bail under strict conditions made his weekly court-ordered appearance at Port Moody, B.C., police headquarters unescorted Thursday morning.

Jonathan Bacon, 27, was granted bail earlier this month after being arrested on fraud charges. His bail conditions include 24-hour surveillance by police and a daily curfew from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m.

After he reported for less than two minutes at police HQ, he was free to leave — and no officers were seen shadowing his next movements, as his bail conditions require.

For the rest of Thursday, as one police source told CBC News, "he's free to go about his business, whatever that business may be."

Bacon's associate left Port Moody

Bacon's associate, Dennis Karbovanec, 28, was also granted bail with the same conditions. At the time of his bail hearing, Karbovanec was residing in Port Moody.

But Karbovanec, after giving the required 24 hours notice to Port Moody's police chief, has left the city and is no longer being shadowed by officers.

"It's certainly a relief for us in terms of resource dedication, and those resources have been re-applied elsewhere for normal policing," said Insp. Andy Richards of the Port Moody Police Department.

The RCMP have said 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

Although police would have liked to keep the pair in custody, when they were granted bail on March 5, Cpl. Peter Thiessen of the RCMP said they would be under constant monitoring.

"For all intents and purposes, they're incarcerated. However, they're not in a conventional type of an incarceration setting — 24/7 they have police of one form or another monitoring their movements," Thiessen said at the time.

Port Moody police did not say where Karbovanec moved to, while Bacon still resides in the city.