day after targeting a drug house linked to the United Nations gang, Abbotsford police have announced the arrest of eight more suspected dealers linked to the Red Scorpion gang.Const. Ian MacDonald said the Abbotsford police and bike squads conducted a two-day project in the downtown core of the city targeting the dealers and their drug lines.Project Christmas Crack - Down led to seizures of crack cocaine, heroin, marijuana, cash, weapons and cellular phones used in these drug operations, MacDonald said."The project also demonstrated that drug trafficking was taking place on or near school grounds and had clear connections to organized crime. Of the seven men and woman arrested the associations to the Red Scorpion Gang in particular were evident," he said."The intelligence gathered as a result of this project will be used for future police investigations and projects. The Abbotsford Police Department is expecting to make more arrests in the coming days."

day after targeting a drug house linked to the United Nations gang, Abbotsford police have announced the arrest of eight more suspected dealers linked to the Red Scorpion gang.Const. Ian MacDonald said the Abbotsford police and bike squads conducted a two-day project in the downtown core of the city targeting the dealers and their drug lines.Project Christmas Crack - Down led to seizures of crack cocaine, heroin, marijuana, cash, weapons and cellular phones used in these drug operations, MacDonald said."The project also demonstrated that drug trafficking was taking place on or near school grounds and had clear connections to organized crime. Of the seven men and woman arrested the associations to the Red Scorpion Gang in particular were evident," he said."The intelligence gathered as a result of this project will be used for future police investigations and projects. The Abbotsford Police Department is expecting to make more arrests in the coming days."

Michael Kiely member of the United Nations gang has been convicted of possessing proceeds of crime after being caught with more than $600,000 and a gun.Michael Kiely, 22, was pulled over near Clearwater, north of Kamloops, in March 2007 as part of an RCMP road check, Cpl. Dan Moskaluk said in a news release.Kiely was driving a 2002 Chrysler Sebring convertible and "displaying suspicious behaviour."A police drug dog sniffed out a hidden compartment full of cash, and RCMP specialists were able to prove the money was proceeds of crime, he said.Police seized $520,000 Cdn, $90,000 US, and a 9-mm handgun.Kiely is serving an 18-month sentence. He also got two years' probation. The cash and the car were forfeited.In January 2007, Kiely was a passenger in a Lincoln Navigator pulled over on Highway 1 in Abbotsford. Police found $100,000, which was seized under B.C.'s Civil Forfeiture Act.RCMP Insp. Wade Lymburner said gangsters should understand that police are going after their ill-gotten gains.

Eight men linked to the United Nations gang have been charged in Canada with plotting to kill members of a rival gang, officials said.The Vancouver Sun reported Saturday the men are accused of planning to kill brothers Jonathan, Jarrod and Jamie Bacon of Abbotsford and other members in their Red Scorpion gang.The newspaper reported that five of the gang members were arrested Friday. Among them is Jon Croitoru, a 43-year-old former professional wrestler known as Johnny K-9, who also is allegedly linked to a double-murder and a police station bombing in Ontario.Authorities said U.N. gang founder Clay Roueche, who just pleaded guilty to trafficking charges in the United States, was also involved in the murder conspiracy, but has yet to be indicted.Prosecutor Ralph Keefer said there is evidence to charge Roueche."Before we decide whether it is in the public interest to proceed with a conspiracy charge against Clay Roueche, we want to await the outcome of his drug charges south of the border in Seattle," Keefer was quoted by the newspaper as saying

Barzan Tilli-Choli of Vancouver is charged with two counts of attempted murder.The RCMP and Vancouver police have arrested two men they allege are major players in a notorious Vancouver-area gang blamed for the rash of violence that has plagued B.C. this year.After a lengthy investigation, two members of the United Nations gang, one associate member and two women, were arrested on the weekend and charged with various weapons and murder offences, said police."This is a major strike against the UN gang," said Gary Bass, RCMP deputy commissioner, at a news conference in Vancouver on Tuesday.The alleged gangsters were arrested after a targeted shooting in Surrey, B.C., on Feb. 16.During that attack, a Range Rover stopped at an intersection, when an SUV approached and shots rang out, striking the male driver in the left shoulder.
Police said the 26-year-old man is one of the biggest threats to public safety in the Lower Mainland."We caught the bad guy," Vancouver police Chief Jim Chu said Tuesday."This is a major blow, to the gangs generally, and to the UN gang, specifically."Also charged with attempted murder are Aram Ali, 23, of Vancouver, and Nicola Cottrell, 26, of New Westminster, B.C.Ali is a known associate of the UN gang and Cottrell is linked to Tilli-Choli, police said.Charged with one count of occupying a vehicle knowing there was a firearm in the vehicle is Sarah Jane Trebble, 28, of West Vancouver.Trebble is also associated with Tilli-Choli.Karwan Saed, 32, of Burnaby, B.C., is also charged with being an accessory after the fact to attempted murder. He was described by police Tuesday as a UN gang member.The arrests are the first in what police promise will be a series of gang busts in the next few weeks.
There have been 22 targeted shootings in the Lower Mainland since Jan. 20.Though no one was killed in the Feb. 16 incident, police called it a "significant shooting," and a targeted attack on an associate of the Bacon brothers, notorious B.C. gangsters who are associated with the rival Red Scorpions gang.Less than 12 hours later, a few kilometres away, Nikki Alemy, 23, was shot dead in her Cadillac while her four-year-old son was in the back seat. Alemy's husband has links to the UN gang.Surrey RCMP investigators said the Feb. 16 shooting was part of a larger wave of gang violence across the region, as two violent mid-level groups, the UN gang and the Red Scorpions, fight for territory."The level of violence of these people is astounding," said Insp. Mike Porteous, team leader for the Vancouver police investigation into gang activity.He said police prevented at least 20 other planned attacks through their investigations, which include figuring out who's likely to be the next target of gang violence, then working to thwart it.Supt. Dan Malo, officer in charge of the Integrated Gang Task Force, said Tilli-Choli's arrest will have a significant effect on the UN gang. Tilli-Choli took over the leadership role with the organization after former leader Clay Roueche was arrested in the U.S. for drug smuggling. Roueche is in jail in Seattle awaiting his trial date.
Tilli-Choli, Ali and Cottrell will remain in jail awaiting their bail hearing scheduled for March 10.

Matin Pouyan, 28, who police believe has ties to the United Nations gang (a known rival of the notorious Red Scorpians gang, that police have tied to Abbotsford's Bacon brothers Jamie, 22, Jarrod, 25, and Jonathan, 27) is shot six times in a Safeway parking lot in Kitsilano. Pouyan has refused to cooperate with police with information that may help identify the shooter. Pouyan has a history of gun-related charges. He served time in jail for firing a 9-mm Glock handgun inside the City Limits Cabaret in Abbotsford in 2004, and was linked to a Richmond shootout in 2007 that saw more than 150 bullets fired in a quiet suburban park.

Elliott "Taco" Castaneda of Abbotsford and Ahmet Kaawach, who used to live in Metro Vancouver, died in the hail of bullets, the source said.
Two members of the Fraser Valley-based United Nations Gang were gunned down in a restaurant in Mexico during an ongoing wave of "drug-cartel-related violence," a police source told The Province yesterday."The two of them were in Mexico at a restaurant when a man came in with a machine gun and opened fire," said the police source. At least 21 people, including a 12-year-old girl, have been killed by warring drug gangs and police since last Thursday in the western state of Sinaloa, which includes the popular tourist resort of Mazatlan, in one of the worst outbreaks of violence in memory.Elliott Castaneda of Abbotsford was one of two members of the Fraser Valley-based United Nations gang killed in drug-related violence in the Mazatlan area.Castaneda worked as a real-estate agent for about two years with Homelife Glenayre Realty in Abbotsford but resigned last month, said company manager Walter Brown."It's very sad," said Brown of Castaneda's death. "I would describe him as a very quiet guy."I really don't know much about his personal life," said Brown."He actually quit our company last month. He gave notice last month and I think his licence got hung up in the first week of July. He quit the business."
Brown said his former employee "had very little to do with the office. He worked out of his house and he came in and resigned last month. And that's about it."
Castaneda, who was about 28 years old, attended Abbotsford junior and senior secondary schools, graduating in 1997.Kaawach was convicted and later deported from Canada to Lebanon after an arrest for weapons in Vancouver, said the police source. He was "very close friends" with Clayton Roueche, the alleged leader of the UN gang, the source also said.Roueche is currently being held in a Washington State jail on drug charges after being recently arrested in Texas when his plane landed from Cancun, Mexico. Roueche, who was travelling to Cancun for a friend's wedding, was denied entry to Mexico and despite his protests was put on a plane that made a stopover in Texas -- where he was arrested by U.S. authorities -- en route to Vancouver."Roueche travelled to Lebanon and met with Kaawach as the gang's Mexican drug connection, someone who could procure cocaine and other drugs, presumably to be smuggled to B.C," said the police source.Sgt. Shinder Kirk of the Integrated Gang Task Force said he is not aware of any UN gang involvement in the drug trade in Mexico."We certainly have heard that members of that group do travel to Mexico," said Kirk. "We do know of individuals involved in particular crime groups that do go down to Mexico. Now whether that's for vacation or business, there's no way to tell."
Meanwhile, the Mexican government said yesterday it was nearly tripling the police presence in Sinaloa state after the close to two dozen deaths and hostage-taking incidents by criminal gangs over the last week.More than 300 people have died in drug-related violence so far this year in Sinaloa -- about a fifth of the 1,700 people killed in cartel battles across Mexico -- as rival gangs fight each other amid an army-led government crackdown.