An associate of the Asian Assassinz gang legally purchased almost a dozen guns, and was unable to produce 10 of them when asked by police in September 2013, according to a police document created one year later. On Saturday, an alleged member of a rival gang to the Asian Assassinz was killed at a North York bowling alley.

Thanh Tien Ngo, 32, was shot to death at Playtime Bowl & Entertainment after being chased down by three men, two of whom were armed, police said.

Ngo is an alleged member of Chin Pac, a gang embroiled in a years-long feud with the Asian Assassinz, according to a police document obtained by the Star regarding 2014 raids that targeted five gangs.

“Over the past few years, tensions have increased between the Asian Assassins/Project Originals and Chin Pac/Sic Thugz alliances,” the police document says, citing control over illicit cocaine and heroin distribution networks as playing into those pressures.

“This conflict and continuing battle for control has erupted into running gun battles, stabbings, assaults and homicides,” it says.

Toronto Police have not indicated that Saturday’s shooting is gang-related. The suspects are still on the loose, and police did not say what kinds of guns were used in the shootings.

The police document indicates the Asian Assassinz associate legally purchased the weapons with his firearms acquisition license in 2012, but does not say where most of them were purchased, although a shotgun was bought at a sporting goods store in York Region.

The document says that gang members used locked safes to hold guns, and the legally-purchased guns include several semi-automatic weapons capable of spraying bullets with the touch of a finger.

University of Toronto associate professor Jooyoung Lee has written extensively on gun violence and gangs, and said he is not surprised by this case.

“This has long been the preferred method for gangs in particular to get firearms, is to rely on somebody who has a clean record who can pass through that background check,” he said. This person is referred to as a “straw buyer.”

“Canada does have a very sensible platform around gun control, but most of the firearms that you want to buy in the U.S. are still accessible here, there’s just a longer process to go through to get them.”

The guns purchased by the gang associate in 2012 include one Heckler and Koch (H&K) Mark 23, semi-automatic .45 calibre firearm; four Tokarev TT-33 semi-automatic .762 mm. weapons; four Glock 22 semi automatic, .40 calibre guns; and two Norinco compact semi-automatics, according to the document.

The Glock 22 and H&K Mark 23 are military and police grade firearms, with the latter designed for U.S. special forces operations. Semi-automatic weapons are sometimes described as civilian models of a military level machine gun, and automatically reload but require the trigger to be pulled each time a round is fired.

One year after these weapons were legally purchased, a member of the Toronto Police Firearms Enforcement Unit conducted an inspection on the 11 guns, but the firearms acquisition license-holder, “could not account for 10 of the firearms supposed to be in his possession,” the document notes.

Police seized the one firearm in the man’s possession.

Less than five months later in Feb. 2014, the associate purchased a Dominion Arms-Grizzly Mag 12 Gauge shotgun.

Police ordered the man to give back his firearm acquisition certificate and surrender the shotgun, but he told police the gun was “long gone,” according to the document.

Police later seized a shotgun of the same model with the serial number removed while executing a search warrant at the home of another Asian Assassinz member. They also seized a Glock 22 .40 calibre with the serial number removed.

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It resulted in several gun charges against the associate.

The Asian Assassinz’s arsenal also included an Astra Cub .25 cal auto handgun and an EAA-Witness 9mm handgun, according to the police document.

The Asian Assassinz were one of two rival gangs (the other was Sic Thugz) subject to police raids known as Project RX and Battery in 2014, which saw more than 50 arrests in southern Ontario and the seizure of guns, cocaine, heroin, marijuana and large amounts of cash. Leading up to the raids, 30 others were arrested and 20 guns were seized during the year-long investigation.

Evidence uncovered in the raids linked the Asian Assassinz to three murders and several attempted murders.

The police document notes that some Asian Assassinz members used Pretty Good Privacy encrypted email technology, and covert communications and counter-surveillance devices and methods to advance their operations and avoid detection by police.

When gang member Michael (Montana) Nguyen was shot and killed execution style at the Yorkdale Shopping Centre in March 2013, he was carrying a handgun and a Blackberry with PGP security installed, the document notes.

“These encrypted PGP emails discussed the importing and trafficking of firearms and the importation, exportation and distribution of illegal drugs,” the police document says of encrypted emails between Nguyen and another associate. “They also revealed the plans of the Asian Assassinz to murder members of the Chin Pac, their rival gang, a gang associate to the areas to the east, including Regent Park.”

The gang also used “ghost lines,” temporary phone lines on the Internet that receive calls but cannot make them.

In May 2014, police intercepted a gang caller saying, “This ghost line is gonna die, it’s been working for a month yo.”

The Asian Assassinz gang was started in the early 2000s by a small group of 14 to 15-year-old males, and has expanded to about three dozen members, according to the 2014 police document.

At that time, the territory of the gang was believed to be bounded by College St. to the north down to King St., and bordered by Bathurst St. on the west side and Spadina Ave. to the east.

The gang originated in Alexandra Park, across from the Vanauley Walk housing complex, both “hangout” areas, according to the document.