Vancouver Police said Thursday that they have identified the victim as Amandeep Manj, the city’s 13th homicide of 2021. The 35-year-old Manj was found dead in a vehicle in the underground parkade of the Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel Wednesday afternoon. Officers and paramedics attended and he was pronounced dead on scene. Aman Manj’s younger brother Jodh was killed by a hitman in Mexico in 2018. Jodh Manj was shot leaving a gym in a commercial complex in a Mexico City suburb.

By PD Raj With News Files

VANCOUVER – The gangland killings continue as the latest victim is another UN gangster, the second of the Manj brothers to be gunned down.

 Vancouver Police said Thursday that they have identified the victim as Amandeep Manj, the city’s 13th homicide of 2021.

The 35-year-old Manj was found dead in a vehicle in the underground parkade of the Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel Wednesday afternoon. Officers and paramedics attended and he was pronounced dead on scene.

Homicide detectives continue to investigate. No arrests have been made.

“Early this morning, witnesses called police to report a vehicle on fire near Charles and Penticton streets in East Vancouver,” says Constable Tania Visintin. “Our investigators are working to determine if there is a connection between this arson and yesterday’s murder.”

Officers responded to level three of the Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel parkade near Cordova and Burrard streets around 3:30 p.m. after a man was found unresponsive by a witness. Paramedics attended and pronounced the man dead on scene.

“This brazen shooting happened in broad daylight at a popular tourist hotel in the city Visintin said.

 “VPD Homicide investigators believe the shooting was targeted.  We are asking the public to remain vigilant while we find the person responsible,” added Constable Visintin.

Manj’s shooting comes after a lull in a violent year of shootings and murders in the Lower Mainland gang conflict. There’s no confirmation whether his death was part of the war.

Aman Manj’s younger brother Jodh was killed by a hitman in Mexico in 2018.

Jodh Manj, 31, was shot leaving a gym in a commercial complex in a Mexico City suburb. Aman reached out to a Postmedia reporter claiming his younger sibling had nothing to do with the UN gang.

“He wasn’t a UN member. We had friends,” Aman Manj said in a December 2018 email. “His death had nothing to do with anyone from Vancouver.”

But he declined to say why he believed his brother had been targeted.

Police sources say both Manj brothers were connected to the UN — a drug gang started in B.C.’s Fraser Valley in the mid-90s by Clay Roueche, who is in jail in the U.S. for drug smuggling and money laundering, reported Post Media.

Jodh Manj had links with Mexican cartels to broker bulk cocaine shipments to Canada that would then be sold by the gang, the sources said.

Aman Manj was also suspected of having continued involvement in the drug trade. He had a criminal record for robbery and breaching conditions.

In 2008, Vancouver police identified Aman Manj as one of the suspects in a series of tit-for-tat shootings involving three rival groups in south Vancouver. 

Anyone with information is asked to call VPD’s Homicide Unit at 604-717-2500 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.