Independent Soldiers

The Independent Soldiers is a criminal enterprise, that was said to have been formed by a group of Punjabi-Canadian youth from East Vancouver, South Vancouver and other Metro Vancouver municipalities in 1991 as the "Sunset Boys".[9] They had come together in 1991 under the name "Sunset Boys" (named after the Sunset neighbourhood of South Vancouver), under the Punjabi Mafia which had formerly been called the "Los Diablos gang".[15] In 1989, the Los Diablos, a predominantly Mexican and El Salvadorian gang which operated as a mid-level street gang became the "Punjabi Mafia" after the arrests of old members throughout the 1980s and the takeover by the Dosanjh brothers and Robbie Kandola and by 1991 Robbie Kandola had created another gang named the "Sunset Boys", made up of teens from his old neighborhood, which operated as his personal hit squad under the Punjabi Mafia.[12] By 1993, the Sunset Boys gang had adopted the name the "Indepedent Soldiers" gang, with the name meaning the group was independent of any other groups or gangs and would only take direction from Punjabi Mafia leaders(Robbie Kandola, Dosanjh brothers and Ranjit Cheema) and the IS would operate as their "soldiers".[16]

By 1994, Bindy Johal had created a split in the Punjabi Mafia, mostly due to his lack of access to the Independent Soldiers hit squad and he was given no access to the bulk shipments of drugs that the leadership of the Punjabi Mafia sold, this alienation caused Bindy to recruit his own enforcers in the 8-member hit squad known as "the Elite", which would answer solely to Bindy and would be used by him in the war between the two opposing Punjabi mafia factions, with the Elite hit squad on one side under Bindy and the IS gang on the other side, under Robbie Kandola, Dosanjh brothers and Ranjit Cheema.[17] Unlike the Elite hit squad who wore leather jackets with their gang name and logo displayed as well as muscle shirts displaying the logos, the IS gang did not wear clothing with logos to identify members in the 1990s and instead each made-member had "Independent Soldiers" tattooed across their abdomen, under their chest across their ribs, along with low-level members identifying fellow IS members by wearing camouflage clothing and used army fatigues in public in order to represent the IS gang.[18] Throughout the 1990s, the IS gang would enforce, run marijuana grow-ops, murder, assault, carry out contract-killings, traffic drugs, commit armed robberies and collect street taxes from mid-level and street-level gangs for their Punjabi Mafia faction, under remaining leaders Robbie Kandola, Ranjit Cheema, Paul Dosanjh and the other Johal Family (not to be confused with the crime family of Cheema/IS Gang/Dosanjh rival Bindy Johal).[19] Eventually the Punjabi Mafia war from 1994 to 1997 would end, however the split would remain permanent and after the murder of Bindy Johal by the Buttar faction, Bindy's own crime family would splinter into the rival Buttar Family and Dhak-Duhre crime groups, who would remain bitter rivals with one another as well as with the IS gang and the Punjabi Mafia faction leading it.[20] Similar to the IS gang, the Elite hit squad would perform similar crimes for the opposing faction led by their leaders Bindy Johal and Baljit "Bal" Buttar, who also imposed a street tax on mid-level and street-level gangs who were not supplied by the Punjabi Mafia in one way or another, these operations would continue peacefully for both groups after the end of the internal war in 1997, with both factions attending a sit-down in November 1997 in North Vancouver and marking out criminal territories across British Columbia and Alberta, however bad blood would remain.[21]

The bad blood would erupt again between the Buttar family and the IS when Mike Brar, the bodyguard of Ranjit Cheema was killed in May 2000, allegedly ordered by IS kingpin Robbie Kandola after Ranjit had switched factions to the Buttar Family after the murder of Bindy, which was ordered by the Buttar Family causing the Bindy Johal faction of the Punjabi Mafia to split into the rival Buttar Family as well as the Dhak and Duhre Crime Groups.[22] Next, Kelly Buttar of the Buttar Family was shot dead in December 2001, in revenge for this killing Bal Buttar self-admittedly ordered the Elite to murder the suspected killer of Kelly Buttar, IS hitman Jaskaran Singh Chima in March 2002 and then murder IS kingpin Robbie Kandola outside his Coal Harbour penthouse due to him ordering the killing of Kelly Buttar on suspicion of Kelly's crew taxing and supplying dealers in IS territory.[13] These tensions between the IS gang and Buttar Family would be ended in the Castle Fun Park meeting in December 2006 where both sides would send underlings to meet and end the feud, with IS lieutenant James Riach and IS soldier Randy Naicker representing their leaders, the Adiwal twins and Deo brothers, meeting with Red Scorpion lieutenants the Bacon brothers and Anton Hooites-Meursing who were sent by the remaining Buttar family, Ranjit Cheema[23] and high-ranking Red Scorpion member, Tejinder Malli to represent them.[24][25]

By 2005, the IS were operating in British Columbia and Alberta, predominantly in Vancouver, the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island, the Fraser Valley, Kelowna, Calgary and Edmonton, they also had begun printing and wearing clothing with their logos and name on them, with IS soldier Randy Naicker put in charge of the printing on the clothes and sales of the clothes as a legitimate enterprise.[9][26][27] The IS was mainly made up of Indo-Canadians but over the years they became more multicultural and accepted other ethnicities in the lower ranks.

The Independent Soldier's under the leadership of the Adiwal twins and Deo brothers; two groups of brothers who were founding members of the IS, joined the "Wolfpack gang alliance" in 2008 after it was founded by the IS gang's close associate Jonathan "Mad Dog" Chang, along with the IS gang and the Westpoint chapter of the Hells Angels, while the Alkhalil group and Red Scorpions gang would join the alliance in late 2008.[28] The activities of the IS gang may be social or criminal and members can be seen wearing their "colors" and logos with the initials IS on them. In the media, they have been publicized as being involved in organized crime and engaging in turf wars, murders, shootings and other crimes with rival groups, although the group's main operations and activities are relatively unknown.

• 2009 Vancouver gang war
• Indo-Canadians in Greater Vancouver
• Indo-Canadians in British Columbia