Real estate agent acquitted in gang kidnapping

VANCOUVER – A North Vancouver real estate agent and another woman have been acquitted on kidnapping and unlawful confinement charges in a gang-related incident.

Nazfar Mirhadi and Veronica Moncur were found not guilty in B.C. Supreme Court this morning, but five others were found guilty.

The seven were arrested in October, 2011 after a 29-year-old man was kidnapped from a restaurant in downtown Vancouver.

Sulaiman Safi was tied up and threatened at gunpoint as his captors demanded he hand over more than $400,000, but he escaped and was rescued by police in Richmond.

At the time of the arrests, police said the kidnapping involved several suspects linked to the Red Scorpions and Independent Soldiers gangs, and that the kidnappers were acting on behalf of a criminal organization in eastern Canada.