Canada

Toronto gang leader faces weapons charges: Heads group allegedly linked to Tamil Tigers
Stewart Bell and Chris Eby
National Post
529 words
2 November 2000
National Post
FINP
National
A07
English
(c) National Post 2000. All Rights Reserved.
TORONTO - The leader of a Toronto gang that is allegedly linked to the Tamil Tigers terrorist group was arrested
yesterday on weapons charges amid what police are describing as a major escalation in ethnic Tamil gang
violence.

Police found "a large quantity of ammunition" and a semi-automatic weapon when they raided the Scarborough
apartment of Jeyaseelan Thuraisingam, 34, a Sri Lankan refugee who leads the Seelapul gang.

Two people were shot dead outside the same apartment building last weekend, but police have not made any
connection between the two events.

The Seelapul gang is affiliated with another Tamil gang called the VVT, which police and intelligence officials say
is the Canadian enforcement arm of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a Sri Lankan terrorist group.

Mr. Thuraisingam was one of five men arrested early yesterday. He and Tthayashankar Mahendrarajah,
Rasamine Manoranjan, Kokilan Suntharalingam and Paranirupan Ariyaratnam face numerous weapons charges,
including carrying a concealed weapon, unsafe storage of weapons/ammunition and possession of a prohibited
weapon.

The investigation is continuing.

Detective Sergeant Mike Hovey, the officer in charge of the Toronto Police organized crime section, said Mr.
Thuraisingam is facing a deportation order but was recently released from custody on a large cash bond. He is
appealing a drug conviction.

The two most powerful Tamil gangs, the VVT and its rival, AK Kannan, have been stepping up their turf war since
a July, 1999, shooting at Scarborough Centenary Hospital, which left a 24-year-old man dead, Det. Sgt. Hovey
said.

"There have been a lot of incidents since early September. A lot that the media isn't aware of because unless
someone gets hit, the running gun battles don't get reported. A lot of chop-'em-ups, machete attacks -- and
they're all gang related," he said.

Mr. Thuraisingam fled to Canada in the 1980s and his brothers are said to be Tamil Tigers fighters. The Seelapul
gang has about 30 members, according to Rohan Gunaratna, one of the world's top experts on the Tigers.

Mr. Thuraisingam was a star Crown witness in a murder case in the early 1990s. Throughout the trial, the
accused, Kulaveerasingam Karthiresu, claimed he was the killer.

Mr. Karthiresu was convicted but the verdict was overturned in March, when the judge released him and pointed
the finger at Mr. Thuraisingam, saying, "On balance the weight of the evidence falls on [Mr. Karthiresu's] position."
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An RCMP report released under the Access to Information Act this year said "there is no question Tamils are
heavily involved in organized criminal gangs in Toronto and Montreal and that many of them have connections to
the LTTE.

"Some of these gangs are directly tied to LTTE front groups in Canada."

Toronto police concluded in a recent report that there is a "link" between the VVT gang, a Toronto non-profit
group called the World Tamil Movement and the Tamil Tigers. The Tigers have been fighting for 17 years for a
separate homeland in Sri Lanka for the island nation's ethnic Tamil minority.

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