Double homicide linked to drug gangs

EDMONTON Two young B.C. men shot dead in southeast Edmonton have ties to South Asian gangs based in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, court documents show.

Edmonton police said Thursday the double-homicide of Navdeep Sidhu, 24, and Harman Mangat, 22, was drug related. An autopsy confirmed the pair — found slain in a running white pickup Wednesday — died from multiple gunshot wounds. The bodies were found by a passerby around 1:30 p.m. near 39 Street SW and Charlesworth Drive SW. Both men were involved in an ongoing gang conflict in the Townline Hill neighbourhood of Abbotsford, B.C., over the last several years, police said.

Court documents show Sidhu was an occupant in a vehicle present at an Abbotsford gang shootout in October 2014 which left his friend Harwindip Baringh, 18, fatally wounded.

A civil case filed in B.C. Supreme Court, referencing an ongoing gang conflict between the Dhaliwal and Chahil rival crime groups, outlined what the police believe happened before the targeted shooting.

Gunshots were exchanged between occupants of four vehicles, including a blue Altima owned by Sidhu, the court documents said.

The director of civil forfeiture said in court documents that Sidhu and Baringh were part of the “Chahil crime group.”

Sidhu is the younger brother of Sandeep (Sunny) Sidhu, an associate of Jimi Sandhu — a gangster deported to India earlier this year.

The Sidhu brothers and Sandhu are associates of accused killer Jujhar Khun-Khun, who’s one of three men charged in the 2011 killing of Red Scorpion Jon Bacon outside a Kelowna, B.C., resort.

Mangat emailed the Vancouver Sun in November 2015 and expressed concern for his security.

Both victims slain in Edmonton this week were in the Lower Mainland just two weeks ago.

It’s part of a worrying trend of young gang recruits meeting a tragic end, said a spokesman for a specialized B.C. law enforcement unit.

Regardless of ethnicity, the average age of gang members who are slain continues to drop, Sgt. Lindsey Houghton, spokesman for the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit of British Columbia, said from his Surrey, B.C., office.

Gang members in B.C. are especially transient, and violent activity moves across provincial borders, he said.

“Our gang members are somewhat unique nationally ... in that they’re often well connected,” he noted.