Vancouver police "functionally dismantled" NRI Sanghera crime group

SURREY, B.C., Canada, March 27, 2008
Lachman Singh

After one month the arrest of Udham Singh Sanghera, 58, outheast Vancouver, a patriarch (a man who exercised autocratic authority as a pater familias over an extended family) and the Sanghera group's alleged ringleader - and Gordon Taylor, the police have arrested more six men:

• Bobby Sanghera, 31 (son of the alleged patriarch of the crime group Udham Singh Sanghera)
• Jaspreet Virk, 20
• Charanjit Rangi, 23.
• Navdip Sanghera, 24
• Savdip Sanghera, 27
• Kyle Van Leeuwen, 24.

Vancouver police seized guns on Friday

The police said:

• They have "functionally dismantled" a gang that is responsible for some of the worst mayhem and gun violence in the city.
• The Sanghera group has been responsible for a string of shootings, abductions, robberies and home invasions.
• The Sanghera crime group is a family-run gang vying for control of the drug trade in one corner of the city
• In recent years, there are 100 Vancouver shootings and the Sanghera group, which is waging a turf war with a rival crime group, the Buttar gang.
• There were more than 20 confirmed shooting deaths in the Greater Vancouver region since January 15, 2009
• The arrested men will face 69 charges.
• The arrests of these gang members will make Vancouver streets safer.

During the videotaped arrest, Mr. Sanghera yells to someone off screen and said, "I just got charged with guns." Associate with Sanghera group, the police is looking for a seventh man, John Holler, 20, who is wanted on several firearms charges.

The Vancouver Police Department launched Project Rebellion in October, 2008 to detain gang members on whatever charges are possible, just to get them off the streets.

The police started arrests in the killing of six men found dead in a Surrey, B.C., apartment building in October, 2007. Police said the men arrested in the so-called Surrey Six shootings were members of a gang called the Red Scorpions.

The Project Rebellion's incharge, Inspector Mike Porteoussaid, “We assembled a group of 25 police officers, who were some of the best investigators in the department. They worked weeks and months on end, often 20-hour days, sleeping on cots in the office, targeting the most violent of gang members.

NRI Udham Singh Sanghera was arrested on Feb. 23, 2009 for attempting to smuggle 36 kilograms of ecstacy into the U.S. On May 26, 2007, the border-patrol agents pulled over the red Sunbird, they found an oversized spare tire allegedly stuffed with 100 bags full of ecstacy pills. The charges were dismissed after Sanghera pleaded guilty to the illegal transportation of an alien, stemming from the fact that his driver, Satnan Singh Takhar, didn't have proper identification to enter the U.S. He was allowed credit for time served and was given two years' supervised release. A $100 penalty was waived after the court found Sanghera was unable to pay.

In March, 2009, police Chief Jim Chu said:

• The truth of the matter is that when one gangster targets another gangster, it's difficult to prevent, and difficult to prove in court, after the fact
• Instead of waiting until they have built a case on serious charges, police have started charging gang members for less serious crimes
• Frankly, we are prepared to arrest them on any and as many crimes as we can. As long as it gets them off the street and into a jail cell, where innocent members of the public can't be hurt, we will continue to pursue them this way
• As police, we've always been told by media experts to never say or admit that there is a gang war. Well, let's get serious. There is a gang war and it's brutal."