GANGLAND GODFATHER

James Kyle (Jamie) Bacon, a member of the Red Scorpions gang, was charged Saturday in B.C.'s worst gang slaying. His co-accused, Cody Haevischer, appeared in court Monday to face charges in the deaths of six men who were gunned down inside a Surrey apartment in October 2007.Bacon is charged with one count of first-degree murder in the death of Corey Lal, and one charge of conspiracy to commit murder in Lal's death.On Oct. 19, 2007, Lal, his brother Michael Lal, Ryan Bartolomeo and Eddie Narong were shot in the head in a targeted hit. The four men who had ties to the drug trade were killed along with Chris Mohan and Ed Schellenberg, who happened to be in the apartment building the night of the murders.Crown counsel Wendy Dawson on Tuesday asked Justice Jean Lytwyn for a direct indictment, which would skip a preliminary hearing and push the murder trial straight to B.C. Supreme Court. Bacon is scheduled to appear in court again on May 15.The 23-year-old was also in court facing w...

Dennis Richard Karbovanec has plead guilty to three counts of second-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder, RCMP confirmed Friday afternoon. It comes 18 months after the so-called ‘Surrey Six’ slayings that saw two innocent men die.Karbovanec, 27, plead guilty at B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver Friday morning, RCMP said.The murder charges concern the deaths of 19-year-old Ryan Bartolomeo and 26-year-old Michael Lal. The third charge is for the death of 22-year-old Chris Mohan, who RCMP say was an innocent bystander caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.Ed Schellenberg, 55, was the other innocent victim.Karbovanec also plead guilty to conspiring to commit first-degree murder in the death of 21-year-old Corey Lal, Michael’s brother.Speaking with reporters briefly Friday, RCMP Integrated Homicide Investigation Team spokesman Corp. Dale Carr called the murders on the 15th floor of a condo complex “horrific.”“[We’ve] obviously made it a very big priority, allocati...

The Red Scorpions are considered to be one of the most violent gangs in B.C. and members have been identified as suspects in the slaughter of six people in a Surrey highrise in October 2007.Victoria police say they've dismantled a chapter of the Vancouver-based Red Scorpions gang that aggressively expanded in the capital city's drug trade by threatening other dealers and sometimes giving crack cocaine away for free.Police arrested six people, in their late teens and early 20s, last week and raided a Saanich house -- on Borden Street, near McKenzie Avenue -- they called the base of operations for a burgeoning Greater Victoria "dial-a-dope" operation.In addition to the arrests, police seized $3,000 in cash, $1,000 in cocaine and a loaded sawed-off shotgun, said Const. Colin Brown, a lead investigator.The raid was the culmination of a month-long undercover operation by the Greater Victoria Regional Crime Unit, and Victoria and Saanich police. Plainclothes officers bought...