BLOOD IN THE STREETS

Police Warn Public Is at Risk as Vietnamese Gangs Go on Revenge
Shooting-Rampage in Violent War Over Lucrative Drug Trade

Police in B.C. and Alberta are tracking a trail of bullets and blood
to stop a Vietnamese gang war in Western Canada that is escalating --
and threatening public safety.

The latest victim was a Vietnamese in his early 20s, killed outside
the Big Bamboo nightclub in Vancouver early yesterday.

The man, whose identity was withheld, had strong connections to the
Vietnamese underworld.

Police said he was crossing the street after leaving the nightclub on
West Broadway about 2:15 a.m. when three men in a van started
shooting at the "target."

They chased him on foot to a nearby office building before executing
him at close range.

The killers, wearing balaclavas, fired at least 20 rounds before
escaping.

Worried cops say the high-pitched gang war could easily claim an
innocent victim's life.

"It's very, very fortunate that no one else was hit by the stray
rounds," Insp. Al Boyd told reporters at the scene, where

bullets hit the side of an office building and a lamp
post.

At least eight other people, all with connections to Asian organized
crime, have been killed since the shootings started last December.
There have been no arrests and some of the suspects are among the victims.

Several others have been seriously injured in the turf battle to
control drug trafficking and other criminal activity.

"Something has gone awry . . . They are taking out their own," said
Burnaby RCMP Const. Phil Reid. "There is a turf war going on and we
are working with Vancouver very closely.

"There is likely to be gangland repercussions and the violence could
easily escalate . . . Public safety is at risk."

Burnaby police are keeping a close watch on a 19-year-old man who was
the target of two gun-toting teens on Feb. 10.

He escaped with a bullet in the buttocks after 10 shots were fired at
him in the 6600-block of Willingdon in Burnaby.

Two handguns were found at the scene but no arrests have been
made.

On Feb. 5, Tuan Le, 17, was shot to death at a rave at Fraserview Hall
in south Vancouver. Le, a Vancouver resident of Vietnamese origin, was
known to police. A 15-year-old girl at the rave was shot in the foot.

Vancouver homicide detectives believe the murder of a Vietnamese man
aged 25 to 35, who was found shot dead in a car in Kerrisdale on Jan.
13, is connected to the execution of two men at a Chevron gas station
on West Georgia on Dec. 29.

Sadradin Hamidi, 27, was gunned down as he tried to run from the
assassins. His friend Majid Mason, 22, was shot as he sat in a sports
car, his seat belt still buckled.

"We are working on the theory that there may be a link between the two
cases," Vancouver homicide detective Rick Crook confirmed.

And Crook said detectives are keeping "on top of things happening in
Alberta."

In Alberta, at least four Vietnamese gang members, with extensive
criminal connections in B.C., have died violently since December.

Among them is Tai Duy Duong, 36, whose bullet-riddled body was found
stuffed in the back of his 1999 silver Isuzu Rodeo near Cochrane, west
of Calgary, on Jan. 10.

Duong -- an ethnic Chinese born in Vietnam -- was known to police
throughout Western Canada for his criminal connections.

Richmond RCMP said Duong was under investigation for unspecified
criminal activity before his murder.

Police are also consulting with the U.S. Federal Bureau of
Investigation to determine Duong's international criminal activity,
which included multi-kilogram cocaine trafficking and international
gambling.

A team of Calgary RCMP officers was heading to Edmonton last week to
seek suspects in the Duong slaying.

Edmonton is suffering the worst of Vietnamese gang turf
wars.

There have been at least seven drive-by shootings in the area, one of
which nearly killed a baby.

In January, Edmonton police shot and killed Long Duy Hoang, 28, known
in gang circles as Crazy Jimmy, after he opened fire on them at a
traffic intersection.

Earlier, two Vietnamese gang members fleeing a police raid died after
they jumped from a balcony.

Police believe the two thought the raiding party were members of a
rival gang.

Sgt. Jim Fisher, an expert on Asian organized crime attached to the
Criminal Intelligence Service Canada, said Vietnamese criminals move
between Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton.

"The criminal activities of these fellas are interlinked and the
suspects are connected by their work," he said.

"We just hope no innocent person gets killed in the
crossfire.

"It's a small minority in the community that many times victimizes
their own and terrorizes members of their community into silence."

Van Phan, the co-ordinator for the Vancouver-based Vietnamese
Canadians Seniors Society agreed: "Most of our people are good
citizens. These crooks give us a bad name."

There are about 100,000 Vietnamese-Canadians in B.C.

GUNNED DOWN

VANCOUVER

- - Sadradin Hamidi, 27, and his friend Majid Mason, 22, gunned down in
a west-side gas station in Vancouver on Dec. 29. The assassins are
thought to be Vietnamese gang members.

- - An Asian male believed to be of Vietnamese origin found shot dead in
a car on Jan. 14 in Kerrisdale. He had been killed the day before.

- - Tuan Le, 17, shot to death at a South Vancouver rave on Feb. 5.
Other casualties included a 15-year-old girl shot in the foot.

- - Vietnamese male in his early 20s gunned down outside the Big Bamboo
nightclub by suspected rival gang members on Feb. 26.

CALGARY

- - Gang boss Tai Duy Duong, 36. His bullet-riddled body was found
stuffed in the back of his 1999 silver Isuzu Rodeo near Cochrane, west
of Calgary, on Jan 10.

EDMONTON

- - Long Duy Hoang, 28, known in gang circles as Crazy Jimmy, died of
multiple gunshot wounds Jan. 7 after a shoot-out two days earlier with
Edmonton police. Police said Hoang was a known enforcer in one of two
local gangs battling over the city's drug trade.

- - Earlier, two Vietnamese gang members fleeing a police raid died
after they jumped from a balcony.