VANCOUVER – The five men who admitted to conspiring to murder the leaders of a rival Metro Vancouver gang have been handed sentences ranging from 11 to 14 years.

The men pleaded guilty last week and the sentences are in the range of what was suggested by both the Crown and defence for the United Nations Gang members and their associates.

However Young Sung Lee, Dilun Heng, Barzan Tilli-Choli, Karwan Saed and Ion Kroitoru will not be spending that long in prison after B.C. Supreme Court Justice Janice Dillon gave the men double credit for time already served.

The murder plot, fuelled by rewards of up to $300,000 offered by the head of the UN Gang, set off a gang war across the Lower Mainland in 2008 where brazen shootings were a near-daily occurrence.

The shootings resulted in the death of stereo installer Jonathan Barber, who was shot to death in May 2008 in what was a case of mistaken identity.

An agreed statement of facts filed with the court said the United Nations gangsters and their associates were in a battle with the Bacon brother’s Red Scorpion Group over illegal drugs.

(News 1130)