Vancouver police say they’ve arrested three men and broken up a murder plot linked to a gang conflict in the Downtown Eastside.
Two of the suspects were arrested in an Emergency Response Team raid in Burnaby on Saturday night, and a third man was arrested Tuesday at his home in Vancouver, according to police.
In a media release, the VPD said the suspects were members of the Redd Alert and Independent Soldiers gangs, and were brewing a plan to kill a rival DTES drug trafficker.
Brian Kiraly-Miller, 26, of Vancouver, and Stefan Janic, 25, of New Westminster, were charged Sunday with conspiracy to commit murder, while Cameron Oppenheim, 26, appeared in court on Wednesday where he was charged with the same offence.
Police said Oppenheim is also under investigation for his alleged role in an Oct. 3 home invasion in the city’s West End.
The arrests were part of the VPD Organized Crime Section’s Project Thunder, which was initiated in September.
Police say their actions are in response to escalating concerns about violence in the DTES.
Deputy Chief Const. Howard Chow said last month that police had seized 450 guns in Vancouver so far in DTES, asserting that many had originated in the neighbourhood.
Police have also argued that a year-old homeless camp in Oppenheimer Park is acting as a “magnet” for criminal gangs and that there is a “direct nexus” between growing violence in the DTES and the encampment.
In September, the neighbourhood was rocked by three shootings in a 15-hour period. It remains unclear if the alleged murder plot linked to the recent arrests was related to any of those shootings.