UN gangster's extradition in hands of judge in Puerto Rico
Fugitive accused in Vancouver gangland slaying
A violent gang war in the Lower Mainland in the late 2000s was highlighted at an extradition hearing Friday in Puerto Rico for one of the men alleged to be involved.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Marshal D. Morgan heard that the UN gang was battling over drug turf with its rivals in the Red Scorpions, including brothers Jonathan, Jarrod and Jamie Bacon.
UN gangster Conor D'Monte not only plotted to kill the Bacons and other Scorpions, but he was also part of the hunt and even put up some of the reward money, assistant U.S. attorney Julian Radzinschi told Morgan.
After 11 years on the run, D'Monte was arrested in February 2022 in a suburb of San Juan, Puerto Rico, with a firearm in his possession. He had been living there for years under the alias Johnny Williams, volunteering for a honeybee charity and playing beach tennis almost daily.
The Vancouver native was charged in January 2011 with murder and conspiracy in the February 2009 slaying of Red Scorpion Kevin LeClair and the broader plot in 2008 and '09 to murder rival gangsters.
Radzinschi said the extradition package provided by the Canadian government last April highlighted
considerable evidence implicating D'Monte, including DNA, surveillance videos and photographs, and witness statements from former associates turned Crown witnesses.
“And as mentioned in this document, the statements of the co-operating witnesses that are in the affidavit of facts are corroborated in part of
the interior material amassed in the investigation,” he told Morgan, as D'Monte listened inside the courtroom.
Postmedia was able to monitor the hearing remotely, as was a member of the RCMP.
The U.S. government attorney described the bloody conflict between the Red Scorpions and the UN both before and after UN founder Clay Roueche was arrested in the U.S. in May 2008. He was later convicted of drug smuggling and money laundering, and is serving a 24-year sentence.
“After that arrest, as indicated by co-operators, the fugitive was chosen as the leader of the UN gang. And as boss of the UN gang the fugitive could decide who gets murdered and he pushed UN gang members to `get' the Bacon brothers,” Radzinschi said.
“Under the fugitive's leadership the attempts to murder the Bacon brothers entered essentially a new phase, a more aggressive phase that included better intelligence gathering, the organization of a hit team that was basically sent to target the Bacon brothers and their associates.”
He said the gang maintained a list of names, addresses, vehicle licence plate, makes and models of Scorpion vehicles, “which was mainly compiled by the fugitive.”
When UN killers Cory Vallee and Jesse Adkins gunned down LeClair in a Langley parking lot on Feb. 6, 2009, it was D'Monte who passed the news around to others in the gang and “then the fugitive arranged for payment to be made to Cory Vallee and Jesse Adkins for the murder,” Radzinschi said.
He said the U.S. government had “met its burden” for D'Monte's surrender to Canada.
“In conclusion, we request this honourable court to order that this fugitive Conor Vincent D'Monte be certified for extradition to Canada.”