Vancouver gangsters plead guilty to conspiring to knock off notorious rivals

An apparent plea bargain has resulted in guilty pleas by a group of Vancouver drug-gang members for conspiring to murder their rivals, the notorious Bacon brothers.

According to the Vancouver Province, five members of the United Nations Gang entered guilty pleas in B.C. Supreme Court on Monday, closing a case that began in 2008 when Jonathan Barber, an innocent car-stereo installer, was gunned down on a suburban Vancouver street as he drove Jamie Bacon's Porsche Cayenne SUV.

The mistaken hit was part of a war over drug turf between the UN Gang and the Bacons' Red Scorpions that would take dozens of lives, including eldest Bacon brother Jonathan. He was killed in August 2011 when his Porsche Cayenne was riddled with bullets outside a luxury resort hotel in Kelowna, B.C.

[ Related: RCMP arrests suspects in death of notorious B.C. gangster Jonathan Bacon ]

The two surviving Bacons are in jail. Jarrod Bacon is serving a 12-year sentence for conspiracy to traffic cocaine and Jamie is doing seven years for weapons and drug offences.

The Province reported UN Gang members Yong Sung John Lee, Dilun Heng, Barzan Tilli-Choli, Karwan Ahmet Saed and Ion Kroitoru agreed to plead guilty to conspiring to murder the Bacons in exchange for prosecutors staying murder and attempted murder charges.

While conspiracy to commit murder can bring a maximum life term, the Province noted the accused have been in jail since they were arrested in April 2009 and would get double-time credit for that time in custody.

The Conservative government changed the law to eliminate double-time credit for pre-sentence custody in 2010, the year after the men were charged, the Province said.

[ Related: One-on-One: Writer sees lessons in the fall of notorious B.C. gangsters the Bacon brothers ]

As CTV News reported, UN member Dan Russell pleaded guilty in April on the same charges and received a 12-year sentence, with credit for the four years he spent in custody.

The RCMP announced last February they've charged three men in connection with Jonathan Bacon's murder.

A combination of tit-for-tat killings and intensive police investigation decimated the UN Gang and Red Scorpions but their remnants and others have taken their place to fight for the lucrative drug trade.

Late last month a man in his 20s was killed in a drive-by shooting in Abbotsford, the Fraser Valley city an hour east of Vancouver that was the Bacons' home base.