Friday, June 3, 2011

GANGSTER GUN BUST IN BURNABY - silencer fitted weapons may relate to bust at Burnaby EIGHT RINKS in 2006

A police raid in Burnaby on May 30 uncovered an arsenal of weapons, which included three handguns and a baby Uzi machine pistol equipped with suppressors ("silencers"). Yesterday the Vancouver news media, and today the two Burnaby newspapers, reported on the lucky haul. Well... actually the news media simply published the RCMP handout text, in some cases even adding a reporter's byline. (Hey, it's only plagiarism when students do it.)

What I find strange is their failure to provide any context, as if it is now routine to encounter an armourer living in a middle class B.C. neighborhood. I would like to see local police do what the Federal Police do in Mexico - put the arrested gangsters on display along with the weapons seized. You are never going to see the faces of the hundreds arrested each year in British Columbia for serious crimes, and that is exactly why they live amongst us with impunity.



This photo shows a table dressed with weaponry seized from the 7000 block Curtis Avenue, Burnaby on May 30, 2011. The auto-loading 12 gauge shotgun and the .44 Magnum revolver are the most lethal. Smaller calibre pistols have been threaded for improvised suppressors (silencers) as has the baby Uzi, which looks like it wouldn't have sufficient internal volume to handle the hot gases in auto fire. Note that the ammunition is displayed in the black metal box which comes with the collector edition of Grand Theft Auto 4 for X Box. I guess the 24 year old who was arrested on Curtis Street with the guns and the half pound bag of Marijuana, has a thing for hot video games as well as destructive devices.




Two significant weapons seizures in Burnaby, though five years apart, seem related as both involve crudely fabricated suppressors (silencers) for rifles, pistols and submachine guns. In July 2006 it was revealed that the parking lot at Burnaby EIGHT RINKS, 6501 Sprott, was the favored spot for arms transfers, because it is a high traffic location where muscular men are commonly seen taking bulky hockey bags out of large vehicles and stuffing them into others. Note that EIGHT RINKS is less than ten minutes from where another batch of home-made silencers, of very similar manufacture, was discovered earlier this week.

This crudely made suppressor, fitted to an Uzi SMG, was seized in Burnaby, May 30, 2011. It bears close resemblance to suppressors trading hands in the parking lot of nearby EIGHT RINKS in 2006. I'm convinced that these devices are not properly made. Perhaps the RCMP would arrange a demonstration of these basement built silencers lately turning up in Burnaby? If you would enjoy watching some PRO gunsmiths at work, check out the fascinating new show on Discovery Channel. It's called SONS OF GUNS.



Here we see a wall of weapons confiscated during PROJECT E- PORTAL, and put on display in Abbotsford in July of 2006, for the media. The operation was conducted by twelve Canadian and American agencies, which targeted a network of outlaws whose stock in trade is modified or refurbished weapons. They were selling their skills to drug gangs in Western Canada, most notoriously to the infamous UN Gang which was based in Abottsford, B.C. The weapons included (in one seizure) 27 WW2 era STEN guns seized in Winnipeg and several ex-Canadian Army BREN guns seized in B.C. and assembled in one place for the news conference. Noteworthy in the photo are weapons fitted with sound suppressors (silencers) made from commonly available metal tubing. They are crudely made, with no attempt to apply a non-reflective finish. Essentially these devices are made to impress or intimidate. One STEN has been used in a Surrey murder, but I do not recall the police claiming that a silenced automatic weapon has been used in our area. A badly made suppressor actually risks injury to the shooter and increases the chance of a jamming. Not good if you are a small assassin targeting some behemoth of a drug dealer fresh from the gym.


Professionally manufactured suppressors (this example is used by NAVY SEALS) have screw threaded caps at each end so that the device can be easily disassembled and cleaned out. In addition the suppressor is blued to match the firearm. The gangland armourers of B.C. seem to lack the skills to manufacture military grade suppressors. If you want to know more about these simple devices, read Suppressor.wiki which includes illustrations of several types. Your nearest public library has much more.

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