nadian gangster at Vancouver International Airport October 26, after he and his younger brother returned from two years hiding out in Iran.
Vancouver’s Gang Task Force met Siavash Askari, 27, as he deplaned. Siavash was arrested, handcuffed and escorted away by five police officers because of outstanding warrants against him which were issued in British Columbia after he missed court appearances in June and October 2008.
He has a series of convictions dating back to 2002 for offences ranging from assault causing bodily harm and resisting arrest to driving while prohibited and violating court-ordered conditions. But the most serious charge he faced—attempted murder in connection with a nightclub shooting in September 2006—was thrown out.
A photographer from the Vancouver Sun shot photos of Askari as he was being taken away. Askari reportedly kicked the camera out of his hand, damaging the camera lens. Police then restrained Askari, grounding him face down inside the airport. He was charged additionally with mischief for kicking the camera.
Askari’s younger brother, Sahand, 26, who was wounded in a 2007 shootout near Vancouver, arrived with this brother on the Air Canada flight.
The Vancouver Sun said readers of its Real Scoop blog tipped off police last month that the Askari brothers were on their way back to Metro Vancouver, where they grew up.
Sahand was identified by police as a “suspect” rather than a victim after he and two other Iranian-Canadians linked to gangs—Nikki Tajali and Vahid Mahanian—were wounded in a January 2007 shootout in which more than 150 shots were fired in a public park. Tajali’s brother David was later gunned down in Calgary. (See Iran Times of October 22, page four.)
Vancouver is the one city in North America that has developed a major Iranian gang system. They are tied to drug trafficking and other gangland crimes. The Iranians are implicated not only in Persian mobs, but also in other Asian gangs of mixed ethnicities. Gang warfare has erupted periodically; in one case, an Iranian gang member was killed with a gunshot to the face in a crowded movie theater.
The Sun said the brothers have been listed as working as the Iranian contacts for the Vancouver-based company Global Track and Trade. The company identifies itself online as a “B.C. based private business that specializes in international investments and trading economical resources world wide.” The company claims to trade petroleum products from Russia, sugar cane from Brazil and rebar from Ukraine.
Daniel Lovric and Williams Njoku are listed as the Vancouver contacts for Global Track and Trade. In January of last year, Lovric had five gun charges against him stayed. The charges were stayed, a Crown spokesman said, because it could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that a gun found in Lovric’s BMW in January 2008 was in his possession.