Dennis Karbovanec associate of the Red Scorpion gang was shot New Year’s Eve

Dennis Karbovanec was stopped by Abbotsford police last October wearing a bulletproof vest, it was apparently for good reason.The 27-year-old associate of the Red Scorpion gang was shot New Year’s Eve, but survived with non-life-threatening injuries.Karbovanec, who was out on bail on a series of charges, arrived at Mission Memorial Hospital about 10:30 p.m. — again wearing body armour — and suffering from gunshot wounds. He was later released, police confirmed.RCMP Cpl. Paul Grewal said Monday he could not say much about the shooting because there is an active investigation.“There was a male who came into the hospital with gunshot wounds,” Grewal said. “He didn’t arrive by car. He walked in.” Grewal said police did not know where the shooting occurred, and he would not say whether Karbovanec was cooperating with the investigation.He confirmed that Mission’s general investigation section was working with the B.C. Integrated Gang Task Force in the probe.
“In all these shootings that are gang-related, there is always the possibility of retaliation,” Grewal said.Karbovanec’s close friend Jonathan Bacon arrived at the hospital a short time later to see how his wounded associate was doing.The Vancouver Sun earlier reported that Karbovanec and Bacon had co-signed a car lease together in October 2007, both listing their home addresses as the Bacon’s family residence on Strathcona Crescent in Abbotsford.Karbovanec signed a second vehicle lease a month later for a GMC Yukon Denali, listing his address on the 15th floor of a highrise in the 3000-block of Clearbrook Road in Abbotsford.He was in the Yukon when Abbotsford Police stopped him on an outstanding warrant Oct. 23 in the Matsqui Trail Park on Riverside Road about 1:30 p.m.Const. Casey Vinet said at the time that Karbovanec was wearing body armour and that a search of the SUV revealed a loaded handgun and silencer in a hidden compartment.He was charged with 11 counts and is due back in court in January.


Both Jonathan Bacon and Karbovanec are associates of the Red Scorpion gang, which police believe is linked to the murders of six people at Surrey’s Balmoral Tower in October 2007.


Sgt. Shinder Kirk, of the gang task force, said Monday that any time there is a targeted shooting of someone linked to organized crime, police monitor the situation closely to head off retaliation.


“Any time we have violence against members of a crime group or suspected members of a crime group, there is always the possibility of retaliatory violence and that is of great concern to us,” Kirk said. He said task force members will intercede in any way possible to make sure there is not further violence.


Last May, the task force issued an extraordinary public warning to anyone who associated with Jonathan Bacon or his brothers Jarrod and Jamie, saying the trio had been targeted for death and that others could innocently get caught up in the potential violence.


The same day, the two younger Bacons were charged with a series of firearm offences that are still before the courts.


Kirk said Monday the public warning regarding the Bacons and their associates “is still in force.”

Biker gangs and others carry out “grow-rips” in which they invade a house with a grow-op and steal the crop.

Biker gangs and others carry out “grow-rips” in which they invade a house with a grow-op and steal the crop. They are often armed and people have died in such instances, said Fanning.
"Its a very dangerous business.”

Vancouver, the largest city in British Columbia—a province known for its “B.C. bud”—has been a major center for grow-ops producing high-potency marijuana for decades. Organized criminals and outlaw motorcycle gangs often control the trade and use cross-border criminal networks to sell the pot for significantly higher prices in the United States.

Growing marijuana is a profitable business for many in Canada and lax criminal penalties do little to deter them.With criminal fines often under $2,000 and no jail time, many would-be growers see having an indoor marijuana grow operation using high powered lights as an easy way to make mega-money.But efforts by police to cooperate with other government agencies are making grow-ops look a lot less attractive, says Constable Tim Fanning with the Vancouver Police Department.
To raise the stakes, police now work in conjunction with municipal building inspectors, health inspectors and fire inspectors to enforce a whole range of laws.
"We work with all those agencies and crack down on growers,” Fanning said.While the fine for growing marijuana is often light, mold that flourishes in grow-op buildings can cost building owners tens of thousands of dollars to remove. Health agencies can deem a building uninhabitable until the problem is fixed, which often requires tearing out walls and carpeting.Building inspectors can also penalize owners for code violations related to electrical rigging used for lights and water pumps. In some cities, like Vancouver, they can order the building owner to renovate the building to meet current building codes.In a 60-year-old building, those renos can cost upwards of $60,000, said Fanning.For building owners who do not operate grow-ops, the prospect of spending huge sums to fix problems related to the practice gives incentive to check up on tenants to make sure they aren’t operating a “grow room.”“If you own a building, it is wise to inspect it,” said Frank Lamie, deputy fire chief for Toronto, Canada's largest city.Lamie said a routine inspection every three months will ensure a grow-op doesn’t get started.Toronto Fire Services won a landmark case this week that resulted in $30,000 worth of fines against a building owner operating a grow-op in the basement. The fines were for fire hazards related to the operation and the lack of enough smoke detectors.While the merits of criminalizing marijuana production are often hotly debated in Canada, few people support the criminal organizations that have taken control of much of the trade. In fact, the proliferation of these organizations has also become a major deterrent for would-be growers.This is particularly the case in Vancouver, which has seen a rash of gang- or organized crime-related killings in the past year.Fanning said some criminal groups will even rip off those that have agreed to grow for them and then inform them they now owe the group money.Even for people not associated with criminal groups, the danger is ever present.
"Believe me they (grow-ops) are hard to keep secret from other criminals."While there is a solid movement pushing for the decriminalization of marijuana in Canada, such efforts by police will make those involved in grow-ops increasingly uncomfortable.

Hung Van (Scarface) Bui, was found slumped in the driver's seat of a car , the victim of a targeted shooting.

Hung Van (Scarface) Bui, 27, was found slumped in the driver's seat of a car Monday night, the victim of a targeted shooting.A man who died in a hail of bullets in a Vancouver street Monday was a marked man -- one who survived one of the city's worst mass shootings but left behind a trail of death and violence in British Columbia and Alberta going back almost a decade.Police have not identified the victim but a high-placed source told the Vancouver Province it was Bui -- a man with well-known criminal affiliations who survived last summer's gangland style slayings at Fortune Happiness restaurant.They came back and finished him off," said the source.
The Aug. 9 shooting at the all-night eatery -- where two masked gunmen opened fire on a table of nine people, killing two people and injuring six, including Bui -- remains unsolved.Bui was shot at least six times, said the source, but survived his wounds. He had "a million enemies" and was known to have been involved in ripping off drug dealers, added the source.Bui was also the prime suspect in the 1999 murder of 35-year-old UPS courier Andrew Allan, who was stabbed once in the abdomen in the parking lot of an Edmonton curling club.