Vancouver police have arrested six men, laid dozens of charges and say they have "functionally dismantled" a gang that is responsible for some of the worst mayhem and gun violence in the city.
The arrested men are part of a criminal organization known as the Sanghera group, which is concentrated in southeast Vancouver. Police say the group has been responsible for a string of shootings, abductions, robberies and home invasions.
They are looking for a seventh man, John Holler, 20, who is wanted on several firearms charges and is described as an associate of the Sanghera group.
The arrests are part of the Vancouver Police Department's so-called Project Rebellion, which it launched last October. The anti-gang initiative was aimed at detaining gang members on whatever charges are possible, just to get them off the streets.
At a news conference called yesterday, Police Chief Jim Chu said the latest arrests are proof authorities are getting a grip on the region's gang problem.
"I am pleased today to stand here and tell you that we have taken a major step to suppressing this plague of gang violence by dismantling another violent crime group," Chief Chu said.
Police say the Sanghera group, which is waging a turf war with a rival crime group, the Buttar gang, has been linked to about 100 Vancouver shootings in recent years.
All told, the arrested men face 69 charges.
Deputy Chief Doug LePard said the arrests will make Vancouver streets safer. "In a gang war, the streets of our communities have too often been a battleground," he said. "By getting these criminals off the streets and into jail, we are making our community safer for everyone."
Police showed a graphic video of the arrests of three of the accused, Bobby Sanghera, 31, Jaspreet Virk, 20, and Charanjit Rangi, 23.
"I just got charged with guns," Mr. Sanghera yells to someone off screen during the videotaped arrest. He then utters a string of expletives at police.
Also charged are Navdip Sanghera, 24, Savdip Sanghera, 27, and Kyle Van Leeuwen, 24.
This week's arrests come a month after the same police probe picked up Udham Singh Sanghera, 58 - the group's alleged ringleader - and Gordon Taylor, 42.
The Sanghera crime group is a family-run gang vying for control of the drug trade in one corner of the city, police said. During the probe, police actually witnessed some of the shootings between rival gangs.
Inspector Mike Porteous, who helped hand-pick the 25 officers involved in the probe, said he too expects the arrests will have a calming influence on gang activity. "In removing one faction - the most violent faction - we anticipate stabilization, which was our goal."
There have more than 20 confirmed shooting deaths in the Greater Vancouver region since mid-January, and police across the region have announced several arrests in recent weeks.
Most of the charges they have laid are related to firearm possession, firearm trafficking and assaults. Only Mr. Rangi faces a drug-trafficking count.
But Deputy Chief LePard noted that each accused, if convicted, could face up to three years in prison. "Weapons charges are very serious," he said, adding that some of them have three-year minimum sentences.
Earlier this month, police announced arrests in the killing of six men found dead in a Surrey, B.C., apartment building in October, 2007. Police said the men arrested in the so-called Surrey Six shootings were members of a gang called the Red Scorpions.
Last week, police announced the arrests of three men on charges of conspiring to kill three brothers they allege are the leaders of the Red Scorpions gang.