Gang leader fl ed to Vietnam after losing $ 156K in police sting

Michael Le: ‘ I wanted to get away from charges’

Red Scorpion founder Michael Le fled to his native Vietnam in March 2008 fearing he was going to be arrested, he told B. C. Supreme Court Wednesday.

Le testified at the Surrey Six trial that he left the country right after he was arrested in a police sting in which he had unwittingly agreed to purchase cocaine from an undercover cop.

The murder trial of Cody Haevischer and Matt Johnston has already heard evidence of the sting, in which a key Crown witness known only as Person Y set up a meeting with Le and other suspects to elicit recorded statements about the slayings.

Le, Y and Johnston were captured on videotape with the cop, who posed as a South American cocaine broker in a room at the Westin Bayshore.

Le confirmed to Justice Catherine Wedge that he lost money in the fake cocaine deal. “I lost $ 156,000,” Le testified. “It was a down payment.” Right after the hotel meeting, Le, Johnston, Y and other Red Scorpions — as well as the cop — were arrested.

Le said he was released the next day and immediately made arrangements to leave Canada.

“I went to Vietnam first. And afterward I went to Thailand, Hong Kong and China,” he said under questioning from Crown prosecutor Geoff Baragar.

“I wanted to get away from the charges and I also needed to raise money just in case I do get arrested, I have money to pay for my lawyers.”

Le was intercepted as he arrived in Manila on June 17, 2009, and deported to Canada.

He signed a plea agreement in the Surrey Six case in late November in which he got three years for conspiracy to commit murder in exchange for his testimony against Haevischer and Johnston.

He is also expected to testify at a later trial of accused Surrey Six killer Jamie Bacon.

Le testified Tuesday that both Johnston and Haevischer confessed their roles in the Oct. 19, 2007, slaughter of six at Surrey’s Balmoral Tower.

He said Johnston described how the plan to kill rival trafficker Corey Lal went awry and that Haevischer and Person X shot Lal, his brother Michael, Ryan Bartolomeo, Eddie Narong and bystanders Chris Mohan and Ed Schellenberg.

And Le testified that he attended a meeting in a Richmond apartment within days of the murders where Haevischer wrote on a white board that “s-- t got really f-- ked up” and that he and X each shot three of the victims.

Le finished his direct examination Wednesday morning and was excused from court while defence lawyers asked for more time to prepare to crossexamine the key Crown witness.

“This witness’s evidence as far as Mr. Haevischer is concerned — I don’t believe I am overstating this — is more significant than all of the other evidence the Crown has presented combined,” lawyer Simon Buck said.

“Without this witness, the Crown doesn’t have a murder case.”

Wedge agreed to adjourn the trial to April 23 to give the defence time to prepare.

The trial, which began Sept. 30, was initially expected to last a year.

But it’s now expected the Crown will complete its evidence later this spring.