Surrey Six trial: Drug service like 'delivering pizzas'

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The trial of three men accused of shooting six others to death in a Surrey high-rise apartment six years ago continued Friday with testimony from an associate of two of the victims.

The witness told the court he was a "runner" in a drug delivery service that Corey Lal and Edward Narong, both victims in the murders, were also involved in.

He compared the service to delivering pizza.

"Customer would call the line, we would deliver their order," he said.

According to the witness, the service was open from 9 a.m. to 3.a.m the next morning.

There was a day and night shift that operated out of a workhouse in a basement suite, where the drugs were packaged and money was stashed.

He used a green 1996 Dodge Caravan to transport the drugs in the Guildford Fleetwood area, and said he made about $300 per day for his work.

The witness went on to describe the night before the murders took place, saying he was told to gather all the drugs at the workhouse — 1.5 pounds of marijuana and two ounces of cocaine — and place them in a suitcase with $5,000 in cash.

Later that night, three men showed up, one with a black handgun and took the suitcase, the witness said.

The day of the murders, the witness claims he was in Suite 1505, the apartment where the murders took place, for 15 minutes.

He also claims he saw two men in the kitchen cooking drugs, likely crack cocaine, he said.

The witness said he left the apartment that day with 2.4 ounces of cocaine that he says was given to him by Corey Lal.

A few days later, he heard "Corey and Eddie got whacked," he said.

The Crown will enter admissions to the court this afternoon.

Accused plead not guilty

The three men accused of the killings, which took place in a Surrey highrise in 2007, all pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder charges at the opening of the trial on Monday in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver.

Matthew James Johnston and Cody Rae Haevischer are charged with six counts of first-degree murder and Quang Vinh Thang (Michael) Le is facing one charge of first-degree murder.

Two other men charged in the case, Jamie Kyle Bacon and Sophon Sek, will be tried separately at a later date.

Prosecutors say they intend to prove that Johnston and Haevischer went to the apartment to kill victim Corey Lal because he failed to meet a deadline to repay a $100,000 drug debt.

They say the accused killed the other five people in the apartment so there would be no witnesses to the murder of Lal.

Prosecutors said the six bodies were found in two groups of three inside the apartment. A total of 19 shots were fired in the massacre, which took place around 2:40 p.m. PT on Oct. 19, 2007.

The six all had their heads covered and shots were fired directly into the backs of the heads of three of the victims. One other was shot in the back, another in the head, and one in the face and neck.

The three accused were all members of the Red Scorpions gang, the Crown said.

But only two, Johnston and Haevischer, are charged with the first-degree murders of Schellenberg, 55, and Mohan, 22, — whom police have described as bystanders who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

At the time, Metro Vancouver was in the grips of a violent gang war dominated by a deadly rivalry between the Red Scorpions and the UN gangs.

Four of the victims, Ryan Bartolomeo, 19, brothers Michael Lal, 26, and Corey Lal, 21, and Edward Narong, 22, were described by police as having criminal lifestyles.