Wanted man was acquitted in notorious Garden Restaurant murder

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The federal offender wanted by cops for allegedly breaching his statutory release was one of the men acquitted of the notorious Garden Restaurant murder.

On Tuesday, the Repeat Offender Parole Enforcement (R.O.P.E.) Squad asked for public assistance in locating Derek Oppong, who is wanted on a nationwide warrant.

The 30-year-old gangbanger had been serving a 10-year sentence for kidnapping, firearms offences, extortion, commission of an offence for a criminal organization and forcible confinement.

On Nov. 16, 2014, police were called to the Garden Restaurant near Bay and Dundas Sts. for reports of a shooting.

Inside the Chinese food joint, Tariq Mohammed was enjoying a 4 a.m. meal with a pal. They were approached by a group of men who allegedly attempted to steal a gold necklace. A fight broke out, numerous shots were fired and two women were struck by stray bullets. Mohammed, 31, wasn’t as lucky. He died at the scene.

The shocking murder stunned the city.

Oppong, Clifton Vassel, Abdirisak Yusuf Ibrahim, Marcus Gibson and Ceyon Carrington all eventually had charges against them dropped. Accused triggerman Havard McKenzie, who had been charged with first-degree murder, was acquitted.

In January 2015, Gibson and Carrington were arrested for first-degree murder, but after spending five months behind bars both were acquitted when the Crown found there was no reasonable prospect of a conviction in the case.

Their taste of freedom didn’t last long.

The pair was murdered the following year in separate shootings allegedly stemming from a Regent Park gang feud between the Halal Gang and Sic Thugz.

Ibrahim has a long criminal history involving drug trafficking in Toronto and Regina. He had been ordered deported from Canada in 2006, “having been convicted in Canada of an offence under an act of Parliament punishable by a maximum term of imprisonment of at least 10 years.”

It is not clear what he was convicted of, but in 2007 Ibrahim convinced the Immigration and Refugee Board to give him a two-year stay.

The board wrote: “The appellant’s demonstrated avoidance of further criminality is an indication that he poses a diminished risk of re-offending and that he had taken steps towards his rehabilitation. The appellant has also shown that he had begun to make positive efforts at establishment in Canada from a social and economic perspective.”

Ibrahim broke the conditions — including a conviction for trafficking crack-cocaine — he promised to abide by and the stay was cancelled.

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As of 2016, he was still in Canada and neither the privacy-focused Immigration and Refugee Board nor the Canada Border Service Agency would say if there was a removal order.

Vassel, 33, is now serving a life sentence after he was convicted for the first-degree murder of Andrew Surage, 47, and a father of five in the fall of 2014. At the time, Vassel was facing 36 charges for a shooting rampage in the Jane and Finch area.

Surage was shot in the chest following a botched gold-chain robbery outside an after-hours boozecan in the Weston-Rogers Rds. area in the fall of 2014.

Oppong is Black, 6-foot and 194 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. He is known to frequent the GTA.

Anyone having contact with him or with information in regards to their whereabouts is asked to contact the R.O.P.E. Squad at 416-808-5900 or toll-free at 1-866-870-7673 (ROPE), Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS) or by calling 911.

bhunter@postmedia.com

X: @HunterTOSun