Province goes after gangsters’ property
Government lawsuit claims money and vehicle seized by police are proceeds of crime
The B.C. government has filed civil forfeiture challenges against gangsters alleged to be involved in a violent Lower Mainland conflict.
Last month, the director of civil forfeiture filed a lawsuit again Amandeep Kang, of the Brothers Keepers, seeking to seize over $2,000 in Kang’s possession when he was stopped by Vancouver police in August 2017.
Other gangsters and drug traffickers facing charges have also been named in civil forfeiture cases, a review of new cases shows.
Kang was with an associate named Samroop Singh Gill when he was approached by the VPD about 11:40 p.m. on Aug. 12, 2017, as he sat in his idling 2015 BMW in the 1200-block of Hornby Street.
“The VPD determined the vehicle was associated to Mr. Kang,” the lawsuit says. “Mr. Kang is known to the VPD and believed to be involved in violent Lower Mainland gang conflicts.”
Kang was one of several Brothers Keepers and associates, including Matthew Navas-Rivas, recently on a charter cruise around Vancouver. Navas-Rivas was shot to death in east Vancouver the day after the cruise.
The suit says police told Kang, who was driving, that he was in violation of an anti-idling bylaw.
“The VPD observed a male passenger in the back seat of the vehicle, later identified as Mr. Gill, reach for something under his leg,” the court documents said.
“The VPD conducted a safety search of Mr. Kang and found $2,150 in Canadian currency, consisted of one bundle of $100 bills wrapped around a package of chewing gum in Mr. Kang’s front left pant pocket and one bundle of $100 and $50 bills in Mr. Gill’s rear left pant pocket.”
Gill was also searched and found to have $1,455, a folding knife and three cellphones.
Police also found marijuana and baggies containing illegal steroid pills.
Some of Kang’s money tested positive for traces of cocaine and fentanyl, the documents said.
The civil forfeiture director alleges the money is a proceed and instrument of illegal activity and should therefore be forfeited.
“The defendants did not have sufficient legitimate income to have acquired the money,” the director alleges.
Neither Kang nor Gill has filed a response to the civil forfeiture case, which was filed Aug. 7.
The Brothers Keepers has been part of a bloody conflict with rival drug traffickers — some of whom are former associates.
Brothers Keepers leader Gavinder Grewal was murdered in December in a North Vancouver penthouse apartment. His former ally, Randy Kang, was shot to death in Surrey two months earlier.
Also recently sued by the director of civil forfeiture are Inderdeep Pamma and Walta Abay.
The director wants Pamma’s 2016 Nissan Rogue forfeited after it was seized by Surrey RCMP last October.
The government’s claim, filed Aug. 28, says Pamma was in the vehicle in front of a Surrey house “known to be affiliated to illegal drug trafficking and prostitution.”
When police approached, Pamma “attempted to flee from the RCMP in the vehicle, striking the RCMP’s vehicle and a fire hydrant.” Pamma was arrested in the back yard of a home where police also found heroin, crack cocaine, methamphetamine and a blackberry. He remains before the court on several trafficking charges.
The director said the vehicle should be forfeited as the funds used to buy it “were proceeds of the unlawful activity.”
The claim against Abay is also for the forfeiture of a vehicle allegedly used in drug trafficking in Burnaby in 2015. The lawsuit, filed Aug. 30, says Abay sold drugs to undercover police officer four times before he was arrested and the vehicle was seized.
In May 2018, Vancouver Police said Abay was part of a violent Lower Mainland gang that was contracting itself out to commit murders for larger, more-established organized crime groups.
Abay and his group’s purported leader Taqdir Gill were charged with conspiracy to commit murder, as well as possession of a loaded, restricted or prohibited firearm on Oct. 26, 2017 and being in a vehicle knowing there was a gun inside.
At the time, VPD Supt. Mike Porteous said the murder conspiracy involved “several victims” — some of whom were rival gang members.
Abay is back in B.C. Supreme Court in the conspiracy case on Sept. 14.