Amarpreet (Chucky) Samra, one of Canada's most wanted gangsters, was gunned down in Vancouver on 28 May in what appears to be a gangland killing.
The killing took place at 1.30 AM in Vancouver's Fraser Street soon after Samra left a wedding celebration nearby. Many of the people at the wedding celebration also reportedly heard the gunshots that killed Samra. A burning vehicle was found some distance away, an aspect that is typical of gangland killings in Canada.
So who was Chucky Samra? And what could be the gang rivalries that may have led to his killing?
Around 29 years-old, Chucky Samra is an Indian-origin gangster whose name featured in a list of 11 high profile gangsters released by the Vancouver police department in August 2022. According to the Vancouver Police, these 11 individuals "pose a significant threat to public safety due to their ongoing involvement in gang conflicts and connection to extreme levels of violence."
Samra has been associated with the United Nations gang active in the lower mainland area of British Columbia province in Canada.
What is the United Nations Gang?
The curiously named United Nations gang was founded by one Clayton Roueche in 1997. Roueche, a white Canadian with a penchant for East Asian rituals and codes, began his foray into crime by working for a Vietnamese gang. His criminal enterprise grew after he began exporting Marijuana from Canada to the United States. Later, Australia and Japan also emerged as markets for his drug exports.
Roueche's gang comprised Canadians of different ethnic origin - white Canadians, first nations, East Asians, South Asians and West Asians.
The name 'United Nations' initially came up as a joke due to the gang's ethnic diversity.
In the massive Vancouver Gang War of 2008-09, the UN gang fought the Red Scorpions gang, led by the Bacon Brothers.
The Bacon brothers - Jonathan, Jarrod and Jamie Bacon - initially began with the UN gang but later fell out with them.
Later the UN gang also came into conflict with another alliance of gangs known as the Wolfpack Alliance.
Particularly complicated has been the UN gang's relationship with Hells Angels, the American Bikers' gang that has been trying to establish its hegemony over organised crime across North America.
Initially the tussle between the two had racial elements, with the Hells Angels being open only to whites and the UN gang being proudly multi-ethnic.
In 2000, the UN gang expelled the Hells Angels from a nightclub whose management the latter were trying to bully.
The rise of the UN gang forced the Hells Angels to make some kind of peace with them by 2005.
However in the 2008-09 gang wars, the Hells Angels played multiple sides, selling guns and ammunition to the UN gang as well as their rivals like the Red Scorpions.
For more on Vancouver's gang wars, read this story by The Quint.
Who Could be Behind the Attack?
Though there is no official confirmation from the authorities, it seems clear that Samra's killing is an extension of Vancouver's gang wars.
A report in the Vancouver Sun quoting police sources, claims that the Brothers Keepers' gang could be behind the killing.
Meninder Dhaliwal, a key member of the Brothers' Keepers' gang, was killed in Whistler in 24 July 2022. Meninder and his brothers Barinder Dhaliwal and Harb Dhaliwal made their foray into crime after coming close to the Bacon brothers.
Though the left the Bacons' gang and joined the Brothers' Keepers' gang, they remained in conflict with the UN gang and their allies.
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