Slain UN Gang member was busy Abottsford Realtor

It's been a stellar week for Vancouver Crime News, with plenty of fresh information emerging on the U.N. Gang. These guys may just succeed in earning "modern legend" status, if only they continue to build profile and avoid wiping each other out.
In Ottawa much play was given to the release of crime figures by STATISTICS CANADA. "Less crime could hurt 'law-and-order' Tories at the polls, experts say". Really? And the significance? Well according to the quoted "expert" one Bruce Anderson, president of the polling firm Harris-Decima , this is bad news for the alleged "Law and Order" Conservative Government. What a jerk. (I hear my stomach churning.) Since which decade, pray tell, have the sissy boy Tories been a threat to organized crime or to the legion of urban scofflaws?
Mr. Anderson is thinking of the now defunct REFORM PARTY OF CANADA which had as its stated policy, the building of new federal prisons and getting proactive with the Criminal Code. In the 1990s the Tories consistently described REFORM views on Criminal Justice as "extremist" or "mean spirited" and the current iteration of Tory-Thought is decidedly liberal in tone. It's already well established that B.C. gangs do not fear "the system" or the Federal Horsemen. What Mr. Anderson probably desires, in his heart of darkness, is that those former Reform MPs who manage to survive inside the Tory Regime be swarmed and eliminated by Liberal and NDP operatives. That, I concede, may happen.

BLOODLETTERS AND BADMEN
One thing you must admit about the "soldiers" of the U.N. Gang, they are attracting the affections of many of the best looking young women in the Greater Vancouver. As gang casualties pile up, the online tribute pages overflow with photos of stunning babes. It begs the question, "With so much to live for, why do these guys throw their lives away?"

Elliott Abben Castaneda, nicknamed "Taco", was slain in the city of Guadalajara, Mexico on July 12, 2008. Here he drinks with some pretty girls. Note the body language.

Elliott Abben Castaneda, age 29, of Abbotsford and Ahmet "Lou" Kaawach were murdered on Saturday, July 12 as they ate lunch in a restaurant in the upscale Colony Santa Teresita district of Gaudalajara. Both were members of the UN Gang which Vancouver police persistently claim is not active in Mexico. If that be the case, their murder was orchestrated from here. (Statistics Canada take note!) Mr. Castaneda, nicknamed “Taco”, was an immigrant to Canada from Guatemala. He grew up here and was educated in Abbotsford schools. Mr. Kaawach, nicknamed “Lou”, was an immigrant from the Lebanon and he was successfully deported back to country of origin after testing positive for crime.

For the past few years Elliott Castaneda (photo above) seemed to be pursuing a career in real estate sales. Until a few weeks ago he was working for HomeLife Glenayre Realty Co. Ltd. in Abottsford, and managing his clients from home. We now learn that it had become completely untenable for Castaneda to continue in the real estate business since his connection with the UN Gang was exposed. We know this because Kim Bolan of The Sun has secured copies of interesting court documents which expose a joint Law Enforcement – CRA operation designed to harass gang members and confiscate their illegal earnings.

NEWS MEDIA STARTING TO DRIVE EVENTS

A brief but crucial story was published in the Vancouver Sun on July 12, 2008. “Gangster changed jobs after story in Sun; Michael Newman had to 'retire,' he told Vancouver police” The Sun reporter quoted from an affidavit in which Newman insisted that he had changed criminal roles after the newspaper had identified him, in 2005, as a “hit man”. Quoting the affidavit, the story adds - "Newman claimed to have access to 64 information databases and could find anyone and learn about their lifestyle," and "Newman was referring to the UN Gang when he said 'group of friends.' "

We now know that on the day the SUN story appeared, July 12th, Elliott Castaneda was murdered in Mexico. With Castaneda dead, The SUN was free to quote heavily from other documents it had in its possession - documents filed in court by Castaneda’s lawyer, Kevin Drolet. That followup story, published July 18, is spectacular and indicates that the SUN is holding back. "Members battle Canada's Taxman New documents reveal police and gang members met in a theatre parking lot and outside gangsters' homes”

In his court filing Castaneda named fifteen fellow gang members who are being pressured by the super-charged task force. The incident that probably doomed Castaneda involved ten police officers who showed up at his primary residence at 35885 Marshall Road, Abottsford at 1 a.m. on March 4 to serve the tax papers. The female CRA officer attended for legal reasons, but the message to the realtor was clear. He and his associates were being shut down, and the night shift were going to ruin their sleep.
"I asked the police officer who spoke to me why there were so many officers there so late at night. The RCMP officer said that many people are not happy to see the CRA, and they have to go with them. He provided no explanation why they were serving documents at such an unreasonably late hour," Castaneda's wrote. He had no choice but to surrender his sales licence

The Vancouver Sun frequently consults B.C. Land Titles and the Personal Property Registry when they profile people, just as Elliott Castaneda might do in his profession before he was killed. Ms. Bolan established that Castaneda recently purchased three Abbotsford homes, with a combined value is in excess of $1.1 million and that he was leasing a BMW sedan.
Each of the fifteen UN Gang members and associates named by the SUN on Friday will react in their own manner. Some will stay cool and let their lawyer speak. Others may engage in violent recriminations. Lawyer Kevin Drolet, alleges in his filing that the Canada Revenue Agency "is illegally working with police in violation of the Charter and Income Tax Act by passing on the confidential information of citizens". It may well be, but Statistics Canada propaganda aside, desperate times do call for desperate measures. Local police are trying their best to crush this outbreak decisively, before it can escalate to the level it has reached in Mexico where government has been forced to deploy the military.

Elliott Abben Castaneda and pals outside a Las Vegas firing range in 2004. "Taco" proudly posed with the ever popular Osama Bin Laden paper target. He and one other UN Gang member was gunned down in Mexico on July 12, 2008.

The Gun Store in Las Vegas is a popular stop for Canadian tourists. You can take it slow with a pistol or, if you've got bucks to burn, let rip with a sub machine gun. The sign as it looked when the Abottsford boys were in town.

The U.N. Gang - news on its "armourer"

Enlarged detail of a photo we ran on June 26. Clayton Roueche is being held in a Seattle detention facility. Police have revealed that they believe JIN BON CHAN (see photo) is now defacto leader of the U.N. Gang.

My June 26th Blog on the UN Gang was well received and some of you have been checking back for updates.

In truth, local law enforcement is just holding its breath, waiting to swarm the location of any fresh incidents of gunplay. Cordon and search seems effective downtown amid the towers, but it has not been as effective enough in the Fraser Valley. What little action there is, plays out in the Vancouver courts. Yesterday for example, Kim Bolan reported on two bail initiatives, one successful. "Gun Dealer Supplied arms to U.N. Gang"

Last week in Surrey, B.C., notorious bad boys Jarrod and Jamie BACON managed to secure bail on 24 weapons charges. Meanwhile in a Vancouver court Jong Ca John LEE (see photo) had his bail blocked by the Crown. John Lee is currently serving five years for weapons offences and it is now widely accepted that he was "armourer" to the U.N. Gang. The irony of course is that weapons supplied by one bail applicant have been used to try to murder the other bail applicants.

To refresh memories on Jong Ca Lee, I quote Ms. Bolan in yesterday's edition of the Vancouver SUN: "Lee's armoury, on the 21st floor of an apartment building at 1128 Quebec St., was found incidentally by Vancouver police when they got a 911 call to the apartment on April 26, 2007 and stumbled on the cache. A Nazi flag was hanging on the wall. "

Now while I have the greatest admiration for Ms. Bolan's work, both on the organized crime file and on Sikh Terrorism, I still find I must quibble. Bolan, and her editor, understand that SUN readers are averse to legalize. They will not swallow lengthy extracts from court documents, but there is no call for boilerplate which only distracts concerned citizens from the real issue of a drug culture which has a taste for blood, and is capable of evading prosecution.

At no time have the police proved that John Lee was a "Gun Dealer" or that he was an "armourer" in the accepted definition of the word. What he was doing was simply fencing stolen firearms. The Vancouver Sun has the name and address of every licenced firearms dealer in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland. Why? Because several years ago the SUN ran a major story on the lawful selling of firearms in the region. The underhand goal of their piece was to influence public policy. They were encouraging municipalities to ban lawful dealers in the region. And because local news media do not investigate each other, we will never know which, if any, of the lawful firearms dealers identified in the story were robbed as a result of the SUN's "outing" them. It is quite possible the paper contributed to the proliferation of guns on our streets.

.

Further, reference to the U.N. Gang "armourer" having "mines" and "grenades" and a "Nazi flag" in his apartment are all typical examples of gun porn. DEWAT objects [Deactivated War Trophies] are the sort of dangerous looking clutter which accompany many seizures of stolen weapons collections. It is what criminals expect to encounter when they smash into the home of an American who combines an interest in guns and military history. DEWATS are popular eye candy when police assemble a display of seized weapons for the TV cameras, but they are of no particular use to the bad guys. Such objects have no use in staging a typical ambush killing.

The V.P.D. has long acknowledged that most local firepower has been looted from gun collections in the United States. Television news showed us that Mr. Lee had a German MG 42 in his downtown apartment, matched with a Nazi flag. The tripod mounted MG 42 is a highly effective weapon, but my suspicion is that his was a DEWAT. Just for show. The Nazi flag is of course always associated in Canada with White Supremacists, but the U.N. Gang is, by definition, multi-ethnic and colour blind. [B.C.'s school curriculum does work its magic sometimes!] Mentioning that Jong Ca John Lee had a Nazi flag on his apartment wall does not advance the story, and what is really needed is a full profile of his background and his training in firearms.

For example, I have seen no published evidence that Lee is a weapons tech, is capable of converting weapons to full auto without damaging them, or is competent to manufacture an effective gun silencer. If we continue to term him an "armourer" without proof, we risk enhancing the status of the gang as some sort of para-military organization, and that will certainly feed egos.