Former Red Scorpion admits to homicides

A former member of Metro Vancouver's notorious Red Scorpions gang has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for 25 years, after coming forward and pleading guilty to two first-degree murder charges.

Anton Hooites-Meursing, 39, pleaded guilty to the 2001 murder of Randy McLeod, 22, of Surrey, and the 2003 murder of Gurpreet (Bobby) Singh Rehal of Abbotsford, in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminsteron Tuesday morning, police said.

Hooites-Meursing was already well known to police as a former member of the Red Scorpion gang before he confessed to the killings, said Cpl. Dale Carr of the region's Integrated Homicide Investigation Team.

"Knowing full well the jeopardy he was facing was life in prison, Hooites-Meursing came forward to investigators on his own.The information he provided resulted in charges being laid; he has now answered guilty to those charges," said Carr.

"These murders have direct links to drugs, gangs and organized crime," said Carr in a statement released Tuesday morning.

Randy McLeod was first reported missing on June 13, 2001.Ten days later his body was discovered in the 25100 block of Fourth Avenue in Langley by passersby.

Gurpreet Rehal was shot several times after answering the front door of his residence in the 3200 block of Saturna Place in Abbotsford, on March 13, 2003. He died the next day in a local hospital.

Charges relating to the 2003 homicide of Jean-Guy Laurent Lahn, 24, were stayed by the Crown.