CANADA - Hamilton wrestler ‘Johnny K-9’ a member of B.C. gang

OFF THE WIRE
A former pro wrestler from Hamilton is a member of a gang now linked to the slaying of B.C. gxxg leader Jonathan Bacon earlier this month.

Ion Croitoru, 47, who wrestled professionally under the name “Johnny K-9,” is a member of the United Nations criminal gang, according to police in British Columbia.

Bacon, 30, was gunned down on Aug. 14, 2011, outside a Kelowna, B.C., resort. Four others with him were wounded, including a woman who was paralyzed.

No one has yet been charged in his death.

Croitoru was already in custody for a plot to kill Bacon and his two brothers between Jan. 1, 2008 and Feb. 17, 2009.

On Monday, Amir Eghtesad, 29, also a member of the United Nations gang, appeared in a Vancouver court charged with conspiracy to kill Bacon, his brothers and their gang associates.

Police say the Bacons form the core of a gang heavily involved in drugs and guns trafficking. He and his youngest brother, Jamie, had survived previous assassination attempts.

Croitoru is also awaiting trial for first-degree murder in the shooting death of Jonathan Barber, 24, and the attempted murder of Vicky King. On May 9, 2008, Barber was driving a car believed to be owned by a gang leader when he was killed in Burnaby, B.C. King, then 17, was shot in the car she was driving behind her boyfriend, police said.

And in June 2006, Croitoru walked free from a Hamilton courtroom after the Crown’s case in a marathon double murder collapsed.

Croitoru, former president of the Hamilton chapter of the Satan’s Choice Motorcycle Club, had been charged with the execution-style slaying of Ancaster criminal lawyer Lynn Gilbank and her husband Fred in their home in 1998.

The Gilbanks murders remain unsolved.

Hamilton hitman Ken Murdock told the Star last year that he was offered a contract from a Hamilton mob family to kill Croitoru but didn’t carry it out.

Murdock was convicted of the Niagara Region contract killings of mobsters Johnny (Pops) Papalia and Carmen Barillaro in 1997.

Croitoru was kicked out of the Satan’s Choice club for undisclosed reasons before they folded into the larger Hells Angels club in 2000.

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