VANCOUVER – A B.C. court has heard gangsters took out a half-million dollar contract for the life of a key witness in the trial of two men accused in the drug-related murders of six people near Vancouver.

Information about several death threats against Michael Le was released after a judge refused to issue another publication ban on the identity of Le, a former leader of the Red Scorpions gang.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Catherine Wedge says she is dismissing the application, which also sought to conceal names of any triad gang members Le might mention while testifying.

Le pleaded guilty last November to conspiracy to commit murder in the so-called Surrey Six killings after he signed an immunity agreement with prosecutors to testify against his former associates.

Wedge, in her reasons for rejecting the ban, says anyone purporting to want to kill the man already knows his identity and it’s now up to police to keep him safe.

Matthew Johnston and Cody Haevischer are each charged with conspiracy and six counts of first-degree murder after a drug trafficker and five others were fatally shot in a Surrey, B.C., highrise condominium in 2007.

Defence lawyers are slated to begin cross-examining of Le over two days of evidence he gave earlier this month.