VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - Six men and a woman have been charged with kidnapping and forcible confinement after a 29-year-old man was abducted from downtown Vancouver last Friday.
Police found out the man was being held in Richmond.
"During the first few hours of the investigation, [we] identified a location in Richmond that was believed to be associated with the kidnapping and placed it under surveillance," says Insp. Brad Desmarais with the Vancouver Police Department (VPD).
"A total of 41 investigators worked together to aggressively pursue the safe recovery of the victim."
Just as the Emergency Response Team was deciding how to go in and get the hostage, police saw a man in a blindfold being loaded into an SUV.
They followed the truck down Highway 91 where it stopped suddenly, and the man wearing the blindfold was shoved onto the road.
"Members of the VPD and Richmond RCMP reacted quickly, rescuing the man from the roadway," Desmarais says. "Meanwhile VPD surveillance units, shadowed by ERT, executed a dynamic take-down of the suspect vehicles."
Five people were arrested at the scene and two more suspects turned themselves in over the next few days.
Desmarais claims they were working in concert with an organized crime group from somewhere east of BC.
"The kidnapping was financially motivated," Desmarais says. "Some of the individuals we arrested have documented links to the Red Scorpions and Independent Soldiers."
Charged with kidnapping and forcible confinement are: 28-year-old Nzafar Mirhadi from North Vancouver; 42-year-old Demple Brar from Richmond; 30-year-old Thomas Crawford from Kamloops; 28-year-old Robert Carr from Abbotsford; 28-year-old David Tarrant from Kamloops; and 28-year-old Veronica Moncur from Kamloops.
During their investigation police seized body armour, two Glock handguns, ammunition, two Tasers, a GPS tracking device that can be used to follow a person's car, handcuffs, zap straps, police batons, a billy club, balaclavas, and a spy kit used to detect phone-tapping equipment.
Insp. Brad Desmarais displays items seized in a kidnapping investigation that ended in the arrests of seven people believed to have ties to the Independent Soldiers and Red Scorpions gangs.
Insp. Brad Demarais displays a spy kit used to detect phone-tapping equipment that was seized in a kidnapping investigation.
