Udham Singh Sanghera. Screen grab from VPD video.Globe files
Two years after Vancouver Police heralded a series of high-level gang arrests as having "functionally dismantled" a ruthless crime group gripping the city in a bloody turf war, its alleged leader and a top associate have been freed.
The Crown stayed charges this week against the purported leader of the Sanghera crime group, which police blamed for much of the gun violence that plagued the Lower Mainland in 2009, including at least 20 fatal shootings.
A Crown spokesman confirmed Wednesday that Udham Sanghera, 60, and one of his associates, 44-year-old Gordon Taylor, were released from the North Fraser Pretrial Centre on Tuesday following five weeks of trial in B.C. Supreme Court.
"The crown determined that a stay was the appropriate step," said spokesman Neil MacKenzie, adding he couldn't provide further details about why the trial ended so abruptly.
The men were each facing several firearms charges. Shortly after their arrests in February 2009, police swept up another five associates – including Mr. Sanghera's son – aimed at stemming violence in southeast Vancouver that had the public in high alert and was making national headlines.
At the time, only a year ahead of the 2010 Winter Olympics, Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu praised the crackdown as having "taken a major step to suppressing this plague of gang violence by dismantling another violent crime group."
But on Wednesday, as the lawyer for Mr. Taylor said his client was feeling "pretty good" to be released, police had little reaction to the development.
Constable Lindsey Houghton said police would review the Crown's decision and then work together on moving forward.
"The door is open with respect to the possibility of new or other charges," he said.
He said police knew the preliminary details of what derailed the trial but wouldn't comment further.
Mr. Taylor's lawyer, Patrick Angly, called the outcome "unexpected." He said the stay came after he sought further disclosure of information about a police agent who dealt with the men just before their arrests.
"I can only assume it is [related] but they didn't say that," he said in an interview. "But that's just my sense."
Mr. Angly wouldn't say what his client's future plans are, or whether Mr. Taylor and Mr. Saghera were still friends. He said authorities checked Mr. Taylor's record and ensured there were no other outstanding charges against him before his release.
Mr. Sanghera represented himself at the trial because he was refused legal aid, Mr. Angly said.
There were at least four dozen shootings in the Vancouver area in 2009 alone, which police attributed to a turf battle between the Sangheras and a rival gang, the Buttars, over drug profits. They said they could link about 100 Vancouver shootings in total to the conflict.
Spurred on by public concern, officers sought to quell the violence by initiating Project Rebellion, making a slew of arrests involving both gangs in the following months and laying hundreds of charges.
About six months after Mr. Sanghera and Mr. Taylor were arrested, a Vancouver Police inspector told media the number of street shootings had fallen dramatically, from approximately 50 over the three previous years to none involving the Sanghera group.
Gangland activity had been prevalent in the Lower Mainland for some time.
Just before the Sanghera group arrests, police had also announced arrests in the killing of six men found dead in a Surrey, B.C., apartment building in October 2007.
They blamed the so-called Surrey Six shootings on a gang called the Red Scorpions, headed by three brothers. Police then arrested three men they say conspired to kill the Bacon brothers.
The Canadian Press