Something Worth Hearing: This week on the podcast, why are gang hits so hard to solve?
In Episode 7, on location of several local homicides linked to organized crime and looking at the standard assassination script, Mr. Big schemes, and police priorities
A remote, quiet road. A vehicle fire. A dead body inside.
It's a scene all too familiar to members of BC's Gang Squad, the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, and members of the Lower Mainland Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT).
Sometimes a young man is found dead inside a burnt-out car. Other times a person is killed in one place, the getaway vehicle is set on fire somewhere else.
It's a classic gang assassination script.
Dead in the torched car
The last time anyone saw 22-year-old Hamza Fazil was July 27, 2025, at approximately 9 p.m., on Old Yale Road in Surrey.
Two and a half hours later, at 11:30 p.m., fire crews and Agassiz RCMP officers arrived 80 kilometres away on Cheam Road a stone's throw from Highway 1, about 200 metres from iconic Bridal Veil Falls.
Criminality was suspected right away. IHIT was called in. And soon after, Fazil’s death was linked to the Lower Mainland Gang Conflict.
A torched car after a killing
Late morning on July 21, 2017, RCMP officers were putting up police tape around the large property at the KalTire retread plant on Progress Way and Lickman Road in Chilliwack.
When Chilliwack RCMP arrived at the scene just after 9 a.m., they located Yee Hung Chin, 33, suffering from gunshot wounds in or near a customer’s Audi. Chin was transported to hospital but succumbed to his injuries.
Three bullet holes were visible in the driver’s-side passenger door of the grey Audi. Police were examining the car closely and interviewing employees.
His death was quickly deemed a homicide and IHIT was called in.
Police released two videos of the incident. The first was a security video taken from across the street that showed a black minivan pull up to near the Audi. One man is seen getting out and quickly getting back into the van, which then pulls away. This was the shooting at 8:56 a.m.
The second video showed the black minivan on the dike a few kilometres away near the Vedder Canal driving towards the Highway 1 bridge followed by the white sedan.
At 9:02 a.m., the suspect Dodge Caravan was set on fire under the Highway 1 bridge over the Vedder Canal.
A white sedan and a dark sedan then were seen fleeing in tandem from the site of the burning vehicle.
For the previous year, Chin lived in Chilliwack, according to some who knew him. He went by Jason, rode a motorcycle, was a personal trainer and apparently went to church.
But Chin had a dark past as an integral member of the notorious FOB gang from Calgary. FOB standing for fresh off the boat. His younger brother Roger was killed in 2008, and in 2012 the then 29-year-old Chin was sentenced to seven years in prison for possessing a loaded handgun found in his vehicle.
After sentencing and serving his time, Chin moved to Chilliwack presumably to escape gang life and start over.
It didn’t work.
Episode 7 of Something Worth Hearing
These are two stories tackled as part of the theme of gang murders in Episode 7 of Something Worth Hearing, B.C.’s newest true crime podcast hosted by Paul J. Henderson featuring in-studio chats with co-producer Atlee James and interview with friend of the show, Vancouver lawyer Kyla Lee.
In this episode, Paul goes out in the field to the location of three gang hits over the last decade to get to the bottom of why it is just so hard to solve these types of crimes.
Some reasons are obvious: No one wants to be a rat.
Others are more nuanced as Lee explains, such as maybe these aren’t the highest priority cases for IHIT in terms of public interest. No one deserves to get murdered, not even a murderer, but is this where police resources should be spent?
IHIT spokesperson Sgt. Freda Wong was asked recently for updates on all three of these unsolved homicides a decade apart. The answers don't instil optimism that any of them will ever be solved.
On Yee “Jason” Chin (IHIT File 2017-1040): “This is an open investigation, believed to be related to organized crime.” Sgt. Wong told Something Worth Reading. “A suspect was identified early on. We believe there are witnesses who have knowledge of the shooting and we still need them to come forward to co-operate with the police so we can advance to charges.”
On Hamza Fazil (IHIT File 2025-836) Sgt. Wong said, “This is an open and ongoing investigation. I can confirm this is linked to the BC Gang Conflict. Unfortunately, there has been no prime suspect identified to date. We also lack witnesses and co-operation from associates. No arrests or charges to date.”
And on the case of Orosman Garcia-Arevalo Jr. (IHIT File 2016-875) who was found dead in a blueberry field near the Vedder Canal in 2016, a case discussed in this week's podcast: “This is an open investigation, believed to be linked to organized crime,” Sgt. Wong said. “The suspect who was identified early on and whom we believe was responsible for the murder has since died. In my opinion, we are unlikely to get murder charges on this case. Nonetheless, that isn’t the only objective for our investigations. We continue to welcome any information or witnesses who would like to come forward because the truth of what happened is important for the record and for the victim’s family.”
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Paul J. Henderson
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