Two charged have gang links, police say

Almost a year after a Langley raid discovered drugs and cash, two alleged gang associates have now been charged.

On July 26, officers with the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit (CFSEU) swooped down on a large house in the 4600 block of 236th Street.

They found drugs, a 20-ton press for compressing bricks of cocaine after it was cut with other substances, and more than $5,400 in cash.

More than 2.5 kilograms of cocaine and 3.8 kilograms of methamphetamine were found, with the total value of all the drugs and chemicals estimated at close to $400,000.

Of the three men arrested last July, two have now been charged.

Leonard Alan Joseph Pelletier, a 48-year-old Langley man, has been charged with five counts of possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking, and one count of resisting or obstructing a peace officer.

Jason Francis Wallace, 26 and also from Langley, has been charged with six counts of possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking.

Both are scheduled to appear in Surrey Provincial Court on July 15.

Both men are well known for violent local incidents.

Wallace pleaded guilty to assault and aggravated assault and was sentenced to house arrest after stabbing a teenager outside a Langley grad party in 2007. 

Pelletier made headlines the same year when his Hummer was chased down 236th Street by another vehicle, with the pursuer firing several shots into the truck. The Hummer crashed into the ditch near Peterson Road Elementary, not far from the house police would eventually raid in 2014. No one was seriously hurt in the shooting attempt.

The two are allegedly linked to the 856 gang, which began in Aldergrove and has been a relatively minor player in the drug trade in B.C.

Because of the presence of more powerful gangs in the Lower Mainland, the 856 gang is thought to have cultivated drug connections in smaller towns in the interior and the north, including as far away as Fort St. John, Yukon, Northwest Territories, and in Alberta and Ontario.

The raid last July led to a minor police chase, as two persons of interest pulled up to the house just as the police were starting the raid.

One man fled and it took several hours and the use of the Air One police helicopter to track him down.

Langley Advance