Five high-profile gangsters linked to the Red Scorpions and the United Nations gang were picked up Thursday and charged with conspiracy to traffic narcotics after a major police undercover operation, The Vancouver Sun has learned.
Red Scorpion Jarrod Wayne Bacon and his associate Arnold Wayne Scott were arrested and are expected to appear in a high-security courtroom in downtown Vancouver today.
Douglas Edward Vanalstine, who now describes himself as the leader of the rival UN gang, was also arrested along with Nicholas Christian Wester and Daryl Robert Johnson and also charged with trafficking.
The two warring gangs were targeted in the undercover probe, dubbed E-Pintle, by the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit-B.C.
CFSEU spokesman Sgt. Bill Whalen confirmed the arrests when contacted by The Sun.
He said more details will be released at a news conference this morning.
“Yes, these people were arrested today and are currently in custody and will appear in court tomorrow morning,” Whalen said late Thursday.
Bacon was in the middle of a Surrey provincial court trial on 10 firearms counts when the new charge was laid against him. That trial, in which he and brother Jamie are challenging the admissibility of the evidence, is set to resume Dec. 3.
Scott has no record in B.C., according to the provincial court database. He is the father of Jarrod’s girlfriend, The Sun has learned.
Whalen said Vanalstine is also now aware that there is a request from the United States to extradite him on a series of drug smuggling charges for which UN founder Clay Roueche has now pleaded guilty and will be sentenced in December.
The U.S. Attorney is seeking 30 years behind bars.
Like Vanalstine, Johnson is a longtime UN member. The 31-year-old was already facing trafficking charges in Summerland when he was picked up in the conspiracy case.
Johnson was also wounded last year when another UN gang member, Duane Meyer, slashed him in the neck in a Penticton strip club. Meyer was later shot to death in Abbotsford in May 2008.
Wester has no convictions in B.C., but pleaded guilty in Spokane in November 2000 of importing marijuana into Washington state. He got an 18-month sentence.
Wester’s brother Dustin was gunned down in Abbotsford in July 2008 and dropped at a gas station some distance from a marijuana-growing operation where police believe he was actually shot. No one has ever been convicted in the slaying.
The UN and the Red Scorpions are considered to be mid-level drug trafficking gangs responsible for much of the gang violence that has plagued the Lower Mainland in recent years.
But criminal probes into both gangs have led to numerous arrests in recent months.
Since last spring, six Red Scorpions have been arrested and charged in the Surrey Six slayings, including Bacon’s younger brother Jamie. One former associate, Dennis Karbovanec, has already pleaded guilty to three of the six executions in the Balmoral Tower on Oct. 19, 2007.
Eight members of the UN gang have been charged with conspiracy to commit murder for plotting to kill the Bacon brothers and their associates. Those charges were laid last spring after a lengthy investigation involving the CFSEU and the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team.
All of the accused gang members remain in custody awaiting trials that will likely get underway in 2011.
"Despite previous arrests and ongoing trials, the UN gang and members of the Bacon group have continued to conduct criminal activity," CFSEU head Supt. Doug Kiloh said. "CFSEU continued targeting these with the initiation of Project E-Printle in February of 2009. The extensive undercover operation targeted the drug trafficking activities of both the Bacon group and the UN gang."
Kiloh said since then, both groups have conspired to import over 100 kilos of coacaine from Mexico to Canada.
kbolan@vancouversun.com
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