Calgary gangster victim of fatal Chilliwack shooting
A notorious Calgary gang member has been identified as the victim of a fatal shooting outside a Lower Mainland B.C. tire shop last week.
Yee Hung (Roland) Chin, 33, died after being rushed to hospital Friday morning, after gunmen reportedly opened fire outside a Kal Tire in an industrial area of Chilliwack, say B.C. RCMP.
Police say the gunmen fled the scene in a black Dodge Caravan.
A short time later, Chilliwack fire crews were dispatched to reports of a minivan fully engulfed by flames a short distance away near the Trans-Canada Highway — believed to be the gunmen’s getaway car.
Two cars, described as white and dark sedans, were seen fleeing in tandem from the torched minivan.
The RCMP’s Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) has now taken over the investigation into the shooting. Police say Chin was the intended victim.
“While the motive for this homicide has yet to be determined, the investigation to date has yielded evidence to say that Mr. Chin’s murder was not random,” said Cpl. Meghan Foster of the IHIT.
Anybody with information is asked to call the IHIT Information Line at 1-877-551-IHIT (4448), or anonymously through Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.
Chin was a fixture in Calgary’s gang wars that rocked the city a decade ago.
He was released from prison last year after serving seven years for gun charges after a loaded handgun was found in the engine compartment of his SUV in 2011, roughly a year after being released following a five-year term for weapons and drug offences.
Chin reportedly moved away from Calgary after being freed from prison.
Chin, who police say only recently relocated to Chilliwack, was known to local police.
In 2008, Chin’s younger brother, Roger, was murdered when he was shot dozens of times while driving in his car on Centre Street N.
The Chin brothers were prominent members of the FOB gang, whose deadly rivalry with the FK — or FOB Killers — resulted in more than 25 deaths since 2002.
Chin was one of the few survivors of the bloody war that left members of both groups either dead or in prison.
Reaching a fever pitch with six killings between 2008 and 2o09, a targeted takedown by CPS gang investigators dubbed Operation Desino saw the arrest of five FOB members.
Nathan Zuccherato, Dustin Darby, Van Thoai Luc, and brothers Timothy and Nicholas Chan — the latter being the gang’s leader — were all charged in the sweep.
Operation Desino centred around two high-profile killings — the August 2008 murder of Kevin Anaya, and the shooting deaths of Tina Kong and Kevin Ses two months later in a northeast Calgary eatery.
The break in that investigation came courtesy of two longtime FOB members, who both agreed to turn informant in exchange for prosecutorial immunity.
The arrests all but left FK winners by default, many of whom remain active in Calgary’s underworld.
Several individuals with FK connections are alleged to have ties with organized crime groups in B.C.’s Lower Mainland, specifically long-standing ties with B.C.’s United Nations (UN) gang, based in the Fraser Valley.
Calgarians Bill Ly and Troy Tran — both fingered in previous investigations as FK members — were named as co-conspirators with an alleged UN plot to murder brothers Jarrod, Jonathan and Jamie Bacon, leaders of the rival B.C. Red Scorpions gang.
Arrested as he stepped off a flight from Taiwan by Vancouver border guards, Ly was charged with attempted murder in connection with the April 2013 stabbing of Nicholas Chan outside a Beltline grocery store.
Those charges were stayed by the Crown last February.