GANGSTER KILLED
For third time this year, a Metro bad guy has been shot to death in Mexico
For the third time this year, a Metro Vancouver gangster has been shot to death in Mexico.
Jodh Singh Manj, 31, was gunned down after leaving a gym in a commercial complex in the Mexico City neighbourhood of Santa Fe.
He was getting into a vehicle in the building’s parking lot with his wife when masked gunmen opened fire about 1:30 p.m. local time on Wednesday.
His Colombian wife was not injured.
Manj, who grew up on Vancouver’s south slope, is a member of the United Nations gang and had been spending long periods of time in Mexico for years.
Police sources say he maintained links with Mexican cartels to broker bulk cocaine shipments to Canada that would then be sold by the gang.
He was also a suspect in the 2012 murder in of Independent Soldier gangster Randy Naicker in Port Moody, although Manj was never charged. Two others linked to the UN earlier pleaded guilty to roles in the Naicker murder conspiracy.
Police also say Manj’s violent demise in Mexico is likely an indication that B.C.’s bloody gang war between the UN and the Wolf Pack gang coalition has spilled over into that country.
The Wolf Pack was formed in 2010 by some Hells Angels, some Independent Soldiers members, and some Red Scorpion gangsters.
On Aug. 24, Wolf Pack associate and former Metro Vancouver resident Nabil Alkhalil was shot to death in a luxury car dealership in a wealthy suburb of Mexico City. His brother Robby remains in custody in B.C., charged with the 2012 murder of high-profile gangster Sandip Duhre in Vancouver’s Wall Centre.
And a week earlier, on Aug. 17, West Vancouver’s Guiseppe Bugge, who police describe as a Hells Angels associate, was fatally shot in a posh shopping centre in Guadalajara.
Manj’s murder could have been in retaliation for the slayings of Alkhalil and Bugge, both described as “targets of the UN,” Postmedia sources said Thursday.
One high-profile Hells Angel was posting gleeful comments on his Instagram Wednesday believed to be referencing Manj’s murder.
Sgt. Brenda Winpenny, of the anti-gang Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, said Manj’s death shows that those caught in the violent gang lifestyle can’t escape it by fleeing Canada.
“There have been multiple murders of gang members, many of them high-profile, in Mexico over the years and recently,” Winpenny said. “Gang members who think they can hide out in foreign countries are naive to think they’ll be able to escape the ramifications of their negative decisions and actions — whether that’s from the police or from those who want them dead.”
VPD Supt. Mike Porteous said police have been aware of Manj for over a decade.
He said he was “always in conflicts with other gang fig- ures, involved in violence across Greater Vancouver, the south slope, drugs, most of the gamut of any kind of gang related crime.”
Richard Walker, a spokesman for Global Affairs Canada, said the department “is aware of the death of a Canadian citizen in Mexico. We offer our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the Canadian citizen.”
“Consular services are being provided to the family. Canadian consular officials are in contact with local authorities to gather additional information,” he said.