An original member of the Game Tight Soldiers gang is facing 25 gun and drug charges after being arrested in Prince George Friday.
Eric James Fike, who has a long history with police across Metro Vancouver, was picked up following a three-day investigation by the RCMP’s drug task force.
Police said Fike, 30, and a woman were attempting to retrieve a bag that contained two loaded handguns, a Mac 10 submachine gun with ammunition and eight ounces of cocaine from a wooded area near the Lower Mud River Bridge west of Prince George.
Const. Lesley Smith said RCMP then got a search warrant for a residence on Gauthier Road where they seized more cocaine, 159 flaps of heroin about three pounds of pot and and other related drug trafficking paraphernalia.
The container in which the guns were found had a fingerprint on it of 31-year-old Joey Lamont Arrance, who police describe as a GTS leader and who was arrested six days earlier at a house where a 10 mm Glock handgun, loaded spare magazine and pineapple-style grenade were located. He is also a former Vancouver resident.
Const. Robert Forgeron, of the Prince George Task Force, said the total street value of the drugs seized Friday is more than $40,000.
"Police believe it is imperative that all facets of society work together to combat issues that are associated to organized crime groups such as the Game Tight Soldiers and the Prince George Renegades. Police request the continued assistance of the general public, to help combat these community issues," Forgeron said.
Fike has convictions in Metro Vancouver for drug possession, assault and breaching court-ordered conditions.
The GTS, which was started in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside in the fall of 2007, has moved into Prince George over the last year, operating crack shacks and linked to acts of violence.
Police say there are now between 30 and 40 GTS members and associates, who are closely linked to the Renegades biker gang, a puppet club of the Hells Angels. Earlier this month, a Vancouver Sun reporter spoke to GTS leader Steven King outside the Renegades clubhouse in Prince George with full patch Renegade Jason Hall.
Prince George RCMP have arrested several GTS members over the last two months in a local gang crack-down.
On Sept. 10, admitted gang member Jacobi Farrell, another former Vancouver resident, was charged with trafficking and two firearms offences after police raided another Prince George house and founded two loaded hand guns, a loaded SKS assault rifle, a loaded high-powered rifle, loaded sawed-off shotgun and another 12 gauge shotgun.
Farrell’s GTS tattoos are visible on his neck and right hand.
Smith said investigators have learned the gang has a range of tattoos signalling the level of each member in the gang. The lowest level GTS gangster can be identified by a cross with no lettering. Mid-level members have the cross and the initials GTS with a PG for Prince George. And the highest level gangsters, have a cross, GTS, and OG, signifying "original gangster."
She said Fike had all three tattoos, indicating his rank in the organization.
Last month, police arrested another 14 people linked to the gang at a house on Oak Street where they found guns, drugs and GTS shirts.
Smith said at the time that police would continue their crack-down on the GTS and other violent gangs.
"We recognize the danger these crime groups are inflicting upon our neighbourhoods so we continue to act on any information or evidence in order to shut down these operations, creating a safer community to live in," she said.
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Click on the arrow below to watch this video: Police Gang Task Force in Prince George. Police Gang Force Task Force video of an area in Prince George known for extensive drug trafficking and gang activity including shootings and murders.
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Click on the arrow below to watch this video: Exclusive: Gang Drug War in Prince George. Metro Vancouver gangsters including Hells Angels moved north to cash in on a growing market for illegal drugs in Prince George, and triggered a bloody gang war. KIm Bolan accompanied the Gang Task Force in Prince George last weekend.
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