Police: Rising gang tensions in Metro Vancouver innocent, everyone, members, warning, public

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Police: Rising gang tensions in Metro Vancouver
The gang task force issues a warning for people to stay away from the Duhre or Dhak gangs


VANCOUVER - Police are warning everyone linked to the Duhre and Dhak crime groups that they could get caught in an escalating gang war.

The head of the Gang Task Force is also worried innocent members of the public could become collateral damage if more bullets fly on public streets.

Supt. Tom McCluskie issued the extraordinary warning at a news conference Tuesday at the headquarters of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit on Annacis Island.

The warning comes four days after an associate of gangster Sukh Dhak was shot several times in a targeted attack. He is expected to survive.

“We are issuing this warning to family, friends and others who are linked to these groups and highly recommend they take note of the risks when in contact with the Duhres and Dhaks, including their associates,” McCluskie said. “We have reason to believe these people are being targeted by other criminal groups.”

Investigators believe Friday’s shooting in Surrey of Dhak associate Jujhar Singh Khun-Khun could be retaliation for a fatal shooting in Kelowna on Aug. 14. Red Scorpion Jonathan Bacon died in that incident, while Hells Angel Larry Amero and Independent Soldier James Riach were wounded.

Since the high-profile public shooting outside a busy lakeside tourist hotel and casino, tensions have been escalating between associates of the victims and those they believe are responsible.

On one side is an alliance consisting of the Duhres, Dhak and some United Nations members. On the other are some Hells Angels, the Scorpions and the Independent Soldiers.

McCluskie admitted the warning is unusual but said keeping the public safe is paramount.

“We don’t do this every day, but we take this very seriously. Given the growing gang tensions and potential for violence in the Lower Mainland, we want to assure the public that every effort is being made to get ahead of this violence should it erupt again on our streets,” McCluskie said.

“We also want to ensure that people are warned that they could be in danger if they associate with the Duhre and Dhak group.”

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However, police are not providing photographs of any of the people targeted or even saying where they live.

The public warning is similar to one issued by the Gang Task Force in 2008 to anyone associated with Jonathan, Jarrod or Jamie Bacon. Since that warning, several of their gangmates have been killed, with the eldest Bacon brother the most recent casualty.

McCluskie told reporters he doesn’t want the public to panic because those involved in the conflict are only trying to target each other. But given that shootings have taken place during the day in public settings, it is important to raise general awareness about what’s going on, he said.

“Public safety has to trump everything we do,” he said. Those primarily at risk, McCluskie said, are “those hanging around the Duhres and the Dhaks — maybe the girlfriends.”

“If you are in their proximity, you are in danger.”

In the Kelowna shooting, two young women in a vehicle with Bacon, Amero and Riach were hit and one is now paralyzed from the neck down.

The GTF operates within the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit and now has 126 officers. Forty of those have been seconded to an 80-member task force investigating the fallout from the Kelowna shooting.

McCluskie urged anyone with information to call the Gang Task Force at 604-507-2000.


Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit BC Superintendent Tom McCluskie issues a public warning in Richmond on Tuesday, September 20, 2011 that anyone linked to the Duhre and Dhak could be at risk given the recent shooting of one of their associates in Surrey on Friday evening


Sukh Dhak is one of several gang members who police say is being targeted in an escalating gang war. Supt. Tom McCluskie is asking Dhak associates and relatives to stay away from him and members of the Duhre group.



Jujhar Singh Khun-Khun and his fiance in a memorial after she was killed in an accident in Surrey in 2007.



Jonathan Bacon and five other victims were rushed to Kelowna General Hospital around 3 p.m. Sunday after at least one gunman opened fire on a vehicle in the Lake City Casino parking lot in Kelowna.



Kelowna RCMP Superintendent Bill McKinnon speaks to reporters at a press conference about a mass shooting in Kelowna on August 14, 2011 that took the live of BC gangster Jonathan Bacon.