Hells Angel Larry Amero and two men from his Wolfpack gang alliance appeared briefly by video link in B.C. Supreme Court on Wednesday, charged in connection with the 2012 murders of rivals Sandip Duhre and Sukh Dhak.
Amero, Dean Wiwchar and Rabih “Robby” Alkhalil could be seen in separate sections of a split TV screen at the Vancouver Law Courts.
Both Wiwchar and Alkhalil remain in custody out of the province, prosecutor Sandra Dworkin told Justice Janet Winteringham.
Amero, who was arrested in Ottawa on Thursday and charged with two counts of conspiracy to kill Duhre and Dhak, has been brought back to B.C.
All three will appear again by video on Feb. 14.
The Crown is proceeding by way of direct indictment, meaning the case will be heard at the Supreme Court level, bypassing a preliminary hearing in Provincial Court.
The prosecution must now be completed within 30 months, according to a new time limit imposed on criminal cases by the Supreme Court of Canada in a 2016 ruling known as Jordan.
Amero won a Jordan application last August in Quebec, where he had been facing cocaine smuggling charges for almost five years while in pretrial custody. He was released and the charges were stayed.
He then moved to Ottawa until his arrest by the Vancouver Police and their Ontario counterparts.
The new murder charge against Wiwchar, 32, was also laid Thursday, in connection with Duhre’s January 2012 assassination. The convicted hitman was also charged last week with conspiracy to commit the murder of Dhak in November 2012.
Alkhalil was already charged in 2013 in the Duhre murder and had made B.C. Provincial Court appearances on the charge. But he is now on the new indictment with his co-accused.
Wiwchar was earlier identified as the suspected Duhre hitman when he was on trial in B.C. Supreme Court in 2015 on several firearms charges.
Hells Angel Larry Ronald Amero in file photo
Both Wiwchar and Alkhalil were convicted last year of first-degree murder for the June 2012 execution of John Raposo in Toronto’s Little Italy. Their Ontario trial heard that Alkhalil brought Wiwchar in, describing him in a text message as the “best hitter.”
Wiwchar dressed like a construction worker with a reflective vest and dust mask and wore a wig to kill Raposo outside the Sicilian Sidewalk Cafe.
Dean Wiwchar is also charged in the murders.
West Point chapter of the Hells Angels with Amero’s image photoshopped in on the right. PNG
Three men linked to the United Nations gang — Jason McBride, Michael Jones and Jujhar Khun-Khun — are currently on trial for the 2011 shooting. Sukh Dhak is alleged to have ordered the Kelowna hit, according to evidence at their trial.
After the Bacon murder, anti-gang police issued repeated public warnings that anyone connected to the Dhak-Duhre group could be targeted in retaliation.
A few months later, Duhre was shot to death in the lobby of the Sheraton Wall Centre in downtown Vancouver. The violent conflict continued and in November 2012, Dhak and his bodyguard Thomas Mantel were gunned down outside a Burnaby hotel.
