A couple of up-and-coming Toronto rappers — one of whom appears to be following in the footsteps of his brother and father — are among the suspected gang members accused of recently kidnapping and torturing two 17-year-old boys.

Toronto Police say the victims have ties to the Queens Drive Crips and were allegedly forced to play Russian roulette and perform sex acts by members of the Young Buck Killas during several days of captivity following an April 19 shootout between the two rival gangs at a condo near the Rogers Centre.

“These kids feared for their lives,” Holdup Squad Staff-Insp. Mike Earl said Friday of the victims, who were only released after their families paid a ransom.

Cops quickly rounded up two young men and a boy, 16, on firearms charges after searching a North York home and seizing a loaded 9mm handgun.

A fourth suspect, Quinton Gardiner, who was arrested for the kidnapping, may have to put his emcee aspirations on hold as he faces the prospect of joining his older brother in prison.

“We believe he’s one of the leaders of the Young Buck Killas,” Earl said.

None of the charges stemming from the kidnapping have been proven in court.

Gardiner, aka Pressa, is a rapper from a neighbourhood north of Jane St. and Finch Ave. W., known by area residents as Up Top, who had some success recently with his song Deadmihana.

In Deadmihana, Pressa spits rhymes such as: “Run up and I’m blazing up this block. RIP and free the ones locked, locked. Headshot, headshot.”

Gardiner, who is 19 but looks and sounds years younger, appears to have climbed up the rungs of YBK after his brother and other gang leaders were locked up in 2011 during Project Marvel.

Chermar Gardner was also 19 when he was arrested for his involvement in YBK’s gun and drug pipeline stretching from Toronto to the West Coast. He was convicted of more than a dozen charges and sentenced to 10 years behind bars in 2014.

That same year, Mark Gardner was granted day parole after being locked up 18 years for killing a youth worker in the city’s west end.

Despite the discrepancy in the spelling of the surnames, sources confirm the elder Gardner is the father of Chermar and Quinton.

Mark Gardner was 24 and on parole for bank robbery in 1996 when he gunned down Dave Williams, 26, who was volunteering as a doorman during a dance for high schoolers at a banquet hall on Weston Rd.

Prior to his latest release, the parole board heard that the convicted killer was still involved in gang and drug activity while imprisoned in 2010.

Police revealed Friday a fifth suspect, Michael Hollinger, was arrested in the teens’ kidnapping.

The 51-year-old allegedly allowed YBK members to confine the boys in his Lawrence Heights home, one of several locations the victims were held.

Cops are still hunting a 17-year-old and Lincoln Richards, 23, who raps using the name Ranski Gleechie.

Richards’ grandmother, mom and sister — who Earl believes were present during a portion of the abduction — are also sought.

The family has ties to the Windsor area, specifically Leamington and Kingsville, he said.

— With files from Sam Pazzano

cdoucette@postmedia.com