CROWN DROPS GANG CASE

Problems Locating Witnesses To Testify

THE Crown has dropped a high-profile prosecution against five suspects
accused of kidnapping two men from a Winnipeg restaurant, torturing
them and holding them for ransom as part of a simmering Asian gang war
over the city's booming drug trade.

The case was set for preliminary hearing yesterday, but Crown attorney
Gerry Bowering stayed all charges, saying there were problems locating
witnesses willing to testify. No further explanation was given to the
court.

Justin Rivera, 25, Koachay Thongsakhom, 27, Rainier Santos, 29, Viet
Chung, 33, and Peter Chung, 33, were facing lengthy prison terms if
convicted of the violent October 2004 attack.

"My clients are very happy with this decision," defence lawyer Evan
Roitenberg, who was representing four of the accused, told the Free
Press yesterday outside court. Competing gang

Chi Kien Dao, 22, and Hue Troung, 21, were grabbed by members of a
competing gang from a Logan Avenue restaurant in front of several
friends and other stunned customers.

Friends of the victims only contacted police when the abductors
demanded a large sum of money as ransom hours later.

The kidnappings triggered an intense police manhunt that ended 48
hours later when the victims were found badly beaten inside a
northwest Winnipeg house. Members of the gang unit and general patrol
officers had been working around the clock during the Thanksgiving
weekend.

Police say the men had been duct-taped, repeatedly beaten and
threatened with dismemberment of their fingers during the ordeal.

The Crown admitted during an initial bail hearing for the accused that
the investigation was "complicated" and that the two victims weren't
co-operating with police.

"It's been a very difficult investigation because of the nature of the
two factions involved," a police spokesperson said at the time.

The suspects were all freed despite Crown objections, due largely to
the potential weakness of the case.