Alleged gang members face charges
LANGLEY: Leonard Pelletier and Jason Wallace have lengthy records with law enforcement officials
Drug charges have been laid against two Langley men described by police as highranking members of the notorious 856 gang.
The province’s anti-gang unit says 48-yearold Leonard Pelletier and 26-year-old Jason Wallace were among three men arrested last July as part of an investigation into suspected drug trafficking activities.
Pelletier has been charged with five counts of drug trafficking and one count of resisting or obstructing a peace officer.
Wallace has been charged with six counts of possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking.
Following the arrests, the agency said drugs totalling nearly $400,000 had been seized from an apartment in the 4600 block of 236th Street in Langley. Also seized was a 20-ton press used for shaping bricks of cocaine.
The two men are no strangers to law enforcement officials.
In 2007, Pelletier was injured during a highspeed car chase that ended in a blaze of gunfire. At the time of the shooting, Pelletier was dropping his then teenage son off at school when he noticed he was being followed.
During the ensuing chase, Pelletier, who police labelled at the time as a Hells Angels associate, lost control of his black Hummer and crashed into a ditch. He suffered a gunshot wound, but his son escaped unharmed.
Wallace, meanwhile, was sentenced to 21 months house arrest in 2007 for a violent stabbing incident at a Langley grad party. The victim, who was also shot in the buttocks, recovered from the attack.
Pelletier and Wallace are scheduled to make a court appearance in Surrey July 15.
The 856 gang takes its name from the phone prefix in the Aldergrove area. Authorities say the Lower Mainland gang has been in existence for about a decade and has a presence in Fort St. John, the Yukon, Northwest Territories, Alberta and Ontario.