Staff-Sergeant Andy Nimmo, head of the Coordinated Law Enforcement Asian Organized Crime squad (CLEU) investigated the cocaine ring, made up of new immigrants from India.

The accused Rajinder Benji is the younger brother of Raj Benji, 27, who was acquitted in October 1995, along with 5 co- accused, of the first degree murder of brothers Ron and Jimmy Dosanjh, shot dead in 1994 during an alleged drug war.

Up to seven witnesses at the trial were under the witness protection program, and four remain under police protection. A witness to the murder of Chana, Sanjay Narain, 21, was found dead below North Vancouver's Cleveland Dam, in December 1991.

Benji admitted he sold cocaine, using drivers equipped with pagers and cell phones. He worked with Faizal Dean, 23, a former Los Diablos gang member, who was convicted in 1992 of the second- degree murder of Chana. Benji had a previous 6 1/2 year sentence for 3 armed robberies, where Benji threatened to kill his victims, including a 5-year-old boy. His parole board said prison records showed Benji to be "a person obsessed with violence, weapons and revenge."

[abstracted from: The Vancouver Sun, April 13, 1996, pg A16]