IN B.C., THE BODY COUNT KEEPS RISING

Despite Stellar Police Work, Drug Wars Continue

The streets should feel a little safer now, thanks to some stellar
police work that led to arrests last week of three alleged killers,
and to surprise guilty pleas from one of their associates.

Dennis Karbovanec was sentenced on Thursday to life in prison with no
chance of parole for 15 years, after he admitted to having murdered
three of six men killed in a 2007 massacre in Surrey, a Vancouver suburb.

Those murders are thought to have kicked off a tit-for-tat gangland
killing spree that continues to terrorize B. C.'s Lower Mainland, and
which has left a number of rival thugs and their family members dead.

The feuding has captured the attention of foreign media. The
Independent, in London, published a long piece on Vancouver last
weekend in which it referred to the city's "blood-spattered streets
littered with shell casings and corpses."

Police have cer tainly stepped up their efforts. The speed of
Karbovanec's arrest and conviction on second-degree murder charges
was stunning, and is still unexplained. Could it be that Karbovanec
had a crisis of conscience and decided to "come clean" to
investigators? That's what his lawyer suggested on Thursday in a
Surrey courtroom before the 27-year-old was led away by sheriffs.

More likely, Karbovanec was ratted out by a fellow associate of the
Red Scorpions, a group of second-tier criminals with suspected links
to the drug and weapons trades.

The public doesn't know what led police to Karbovanec, in part
because a publication ban imposed by a B. C. court prevents media
from sharing certain details of events, and because three other men
must return to court and may be tried for their alleged roles in the massacre.

One of those men is Jamie Bacon, charged last weekend with
first-degree murder in the death of Corey Lal, one of the Surrey Six.
Mr. Bacon is also charged with one count of conspiracy to commit
murder. He is the youngest of three brothers, all known to police and
to the community at large. And not for their good deeds.

Notorious and infamous: These two mild adjectives are often used to
describe the Bacon family. Jamie, 23, Jarrod, 26, and Jonathan, 28,
have been rolling through

B. C.'s court and penal systems for a decade, and are allegedly key
figures in the Red Scorpions gang.

Neighbours, journalists, even police exercise extreme caution with
the Bacons, who don't take kindly to scrutiny.

Their mother, Susan, is a local credit union worker. Their father,
David, is a public school employee placed on leave. The Bacons live
in Abbotsford, about an hour's drive east of Vancouver, in a well-off
neighbourhood. A peaceful, desirable place, until the family's
presence brought gunfire, constant fear and 24-hour police surveillance.

David once grabbed at a reporter's arm, reached for her notebook and
called her a "maggot" when she asked him to comment on gun and
trafficking charges faced by Jonathan, and on the 27 unrelated
weapons charges laid against both Jarrod and Jamie.

That was a year ago, about seven months after the Surrey massacre.
Jarrod and Jamie were placed under house arrest. Their movements to
and from the family's comfortable Abbotsford house were restricted
and closely monitored.

Months later, Abbotsford police installed video cameras outside the
Bacon house. The cameras served several purposes: To help calm the
neighbourhood; to keep an eye on the Bacon boys; and to discourage
other criminals from approaching them. Jonathan had already been shot
and wounded once, on the family driveway.

Two months ago, with the gangland revenge killings underway, police
warned of a plot "to murder Jarrod, Jamie and Jonathan Bacon."

No matter. Jamie filed a complaint against the police, alleging they
had violated his rights while conducting their surveillance and
giving the family protection.

The tables turned with Jamie's arrest and first-degree-murder charge.
He remains in custody and faces the possibility of a very long
stretch in prison. He last served time in 2007, for theft.

Two other alleged Red Scorpions are also charged in connection with
the Surrey Six massacre. Cody Rae Haevischer, 24, and Matt Johnson,
24, are each charged with six counts of first-degree murder and one
count of conspiracy to commit murder.

Jonathan and Jarrod Bacon are not alleged to have participated in the
Surrey murders. Thanks to other charges pending, their movements are
restricted -- they can no longer lease or operate armoured vehicles,
for example -- but both are still able to move about the Vancouver area.

On Tuesday, Jonathan drove his father's black pickup truck to and
from the courthouse in Surrey where Jamie, dressed in red remand
garb, appeared on his first-degree-murder and conspiracy charges.
Jarrod was also on hand; he had to make a scheduled appearance on the
27 separate weapons charges that he and Jamie still face. That matter
was put over until May 12. Jarrod was free to walk from the
courtroom, and back into society. His parents accompanied him. We
will be seeing them all again soon.

The streets may feel safer. But the body count keeps rising. Another
four homicides were reported in metro Vancouver in the past two
weeks. At least two were targeted hits. Two drug runners killed in
Abbotsford were Red Scorpions associates, according to the Vancouver
Sun's ace crime reporter, Kim Bolan.

The fourth murder victim was a completely innocent woman, the sister
of former Vancouver councillor and mayoral candidate Peter Ladner.
Wendy Ladner-Beaudry's body was found near a popular Vancouver nature
trail. There have been no arrests related to these four slayings.

And two days ago, a corpse was found on the grounds of an East
Vancouver elementary school. Police are treating that death as
suspicious. Parents of children who attend the school are treating it
as dangerous.