Vancouver gangs continue violent power struggle

The brazen daytime shooting of Independent Soldiers founder Randy Naicker won’t be the last of the violent power struggle in Vancouver’s gang scene. Vancouver police said it’s too early to tell if Naicker’s shooting is related to last month’s Port Moody murder of Gurbinder Toor of the Dhak-Duhre gang, but said this new brand of gangster is purely opportunistic. Naicker was gunned down around 4:45 p.m. Monday in a laneway outside a Starbucks in Port Moody. Despite a number of witnesses, Const. Lindsey Houghton said Vancouver Police have no information on the shooter. “They’ll take the opportunity if it’s presented to them. We’ve seen that with the Toor shooting, we saw yesterday with the Naicker shooting — they don’t care who’s around,” Houghton said. Naicker, a convicted nidnapper who in 2009 admitted to the National Parole Board he founded the gang’s current brand and logo, was the intended target in a previous shooting outside his halfway house later that year. Gangster Raj Soomel was gunned down instead. Monday’s shooting leaves James Clayton Riach as the best known Independent Soldier left in a leadership role, said RCMP Sgt. Bill Whalen. Riach narrowly escaped last August’s Kelowna shooting in which Red Scorpion Jonathan Bacon was killed and Larry Amero of the Hells Angels was wounded. Whalen confirmed that key players in the Red Scorpions and the United Nations gangs are largely in prison, and the Dhak-Duhre group is down to a pair of senior leaders in Sukh Dhak and Balraj Duhre. What’s left is a dangerous vacuum in leadership being fought over across the province. Whalen declined to comment on the current investigation into Naicker’s slaying. Ranj Dhaliwal, the B.C.-based author of Indo-Canadian crime novels, said the bloodshed will only continue. “I think that there is going to be more violence,” Dhaliwal said. “It’s a whole different scene than we’ve had in the last couple decades because now they’re sending out a message that they will get you anytime, anywhere.” “There’s a show of force going on right now,” continued Dhaliwal, adding he believes the attacks at this point are between gangs posturing for turf. Dhaliwal warns as the external struggle for power settles, the internal fight for leadership will start. Doug Spencer, a former member of the Vancouver anti-gang squad, said the leadership is more fluid, and it’s hard to tell who’s on what side at this point. “It’s fly-by-night leaders,” Spencer said, adding the vacuum has left some turfs up for grabs. “While (gang leaders) are inside, other gangs are running around trying to take over what they started,” Spencer said. “The drug business at the SkyTrain in Surrey here — it’s up for grabs.”