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Five UN gangsters sentenced for conspiring to kill Bacon brothers

The group received prison terms of 11 to 14 years.
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Barzan Tilli-Choli

Five UN Gang members who conspired to kill the Bacon brothers and their associates were sentenced Monday to jail terms ranging from 11 to 14 years.

The longest term – 14 years – was handed to Barzan Tilli-Choli.

Ion Kroitoru received 13 years, followed by Dilun Heng and Karwan Ahmet Saed – each with 12 years – and Yong Sung John Lee with 11 years.

With credit for time already served, the five have remaining prison time that ranges from two years and eight months to five years and three months.

All five pleaded guilty last week to conspiracy to commit murder between Jan. 1, 2008 and Feb. 17, 2009.

In sentencing the group in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver, Justice Janice Dillon denounced the crimes.

"They demonstrate ruthless disregard for life, not only of the rival gang members, but of the public in general," she said in her written reasons for sentence.

"Killing for hire is heinous, completely wicked and evil, and low. It places these offenders at the bottom of society, a danger to everyone who walks the streets or drives a car, villains deserving of the utmost rebuke."

Dillon said the murder plot developed after the Red Scorpions – led by the Bacon brothers – conducted drug "rip offs" of UN Gang members.

The situation escalated when UN Gang leader Clayton Roueche was shot at by a Bacon association in 2007, she said.

Roueche then hired people outside of the UN to kill the Bacon brothers – Jonathan, Jarrod and Jamie, formerly of Abbotsford – and associates Michael Le and Dennis Karbovanec.

Roueche and a co-conspirator collected information about the targets, including photos, locations frequented, and descriptions and licence plates of vehicles.

The other five were involved in discussions about the murder plans and in scouting locations of the targets.

The plan for revenge was elevated further when UN Gang member Duane Meyer of Mission was fatally shot outside an Abbotsford home on May 8, 2008. The UN gangsters believed the Bacon brothers were responsible.

Dillon said Roueche immediately sent out emails demanding that everyone "stop everything and go out and start terrorizing these guys and killing them off."

On May 9, a group of six UN Gang members travelled to six different locations where they believed they would find the Bacons and their associates.

"The attitude was: everybody was out looking and ready to kill," Dillon said.

Jonathan Barber of Langley became an innocent victim that night when he was driving Jonathan Bacon's Porsche through Burnaby en route to install stereo speakers in it.

He was killed in a hail of gunfire, and his girlfriend Vicky King, who was following in a separate car, was injured.

In October 2008, Heng fired at Karbovanec while he was in his car, but Karbovanec was not injured and fled.

On Jan. 24, 2009, Tilli-Choli and others attempted to attack a limousine associated to a Bacon associate outside of GM Place in Vancouver, but police intercepted the group before a gun was delivered to the scene.

On Feb. 15 and 16, Tilli-Choli and others attempted to shoot a Bacon associate outside of the TBarz night club in Surrey. Four individuals were in the vehicle, and one was wounded.

The five conspirators were among eight people charged with the murder plot in January 2011. Co-accused Conor D'Monte and Cory Vallee have been on the lam since the charges were announced.

Dan Russell was sentenced to 12 years in prison earlier this year.

Roueche is currently serving a 30-year sentence in the U.S. on charges of conspiracy to export cocaine, import marijuana and engage in money laundering.

Jonathan Bacon was fatally shot in Kelowna in August 2011, while the other two Bacon brothers are currently in prison – Jamie on weapons charges while he awaits trial in the Surrey Six slayings and Jarrod for conspiracy to traffic cocaine.

 

 

 

 



Vikki Hopes

About the Author: Vikki Hopes

I have been a journalist for almost 40 years, and have been at the Abbotsford News since 1991.
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