B.C. GANGSTER SHOT TO DEATH IN TORONTO

A North Vancouver gangster wanted in California in a drug conspiracy
case was gunned down in downtown Toronto early Sunday morning in what
police are calling a targeted hit.

Shane Kelter, 32, was just getting out of a white limousine when he
was sprayed by gunfire near Wellesley and Bay just after 3 a.m. Sunday.

"The post-mortem examination determined the cause of death as gunshot
wounds to the torso," Const. Tony Vella said in a news release.

Kelter was well-known in B.C. and charged last year in a massive
undercover investigation along with 17 others for allegedly moving
marijuana, ecstasy and cocaine between B.C., Ontario and California.

Kelter and Vancouver residents Walther Edgardo (Sharky) Orellana
Aguilar and John (Keith) Wark were facing extradition. They were
allegedly working with another B.C. man, Jason I. Ming Wei, who was
arrested in Los Angeles in September 2008.

Two other Toronto men, Jagmohan Singh Dhillon, 35, and 32-year-old
Paramijt (Pumma) Singh, allegedly helped facilitate the transportation
of Wei's drugs between Canada and the U.S., according to the U.S. indictment.

Kelter had a lengthy criminal record in B.C. and was facing two sets
of charges here at the time of his death in Ontario. He was convicted
two months ago of resisting a police officer in Vancouver and fined
$100. Last March, he was convicted of assaulting someone at Whistler
and got a $1,000 fine and 45 days probation. He was charged in North
Vancouver in August with refusing to provide a breath sample to police
and was due back in court on that charge later this week.

Also last March, he was charged in West Vancouver with driving while
prohibited -- a count he was due to go to trial on next year.

In 2002, he was convicted in Richmond of having a growing operation,
for which he got a conditional sentence of nine months and an order to
pay $3,251.58 restitution. He faced drug-trafficking charges in North
Vancouver in 1998, but only two co-accused were convicted.

The California drug conspiracy trial was set to resume on June 15,
2010 for the defendants in custody.

Many of the court documents filed more recently in the case have been
ordered sealed. But U.S. authorities said at the time of the charges
that during the investigation, they seized cash and drugs, including a
60-kilogram shipment of cocaine and a 35-kilogram shipment of cocaine.

The indictment said Kelter would direct the activities of Wei -- the
Canadian in California -- "related to the trafficking of narcotics to
or from Canada and the laundering of money."