PORT MOODY, B.C. - Police have identified the man gunned down in a brazen daylight shooting outside a coffee shop near Vancouver as the co-founder of one of the gangs linked to the region's violent drug trade.

Thirty-four-year-old Randynesh (Randy) Raman Naicker was shot late Monday afternoon by masked gunman outside a Starbucks in suburban Port Moody, east of Vancouver.

Vancouver police spokesman Const. Lindsey Houghton notes Naicker is widely known as one of the co-founders of the Independent Soldiers crime gang.

The Independent Soldiers are among the gangs in B.C., along with the Red Scorpions, the UN gang, the Hells Angels and the Dhak-Dhure group, that have been linked to years of shootings throughout the Vancouver area.

The region's gang violence appears to have been escalating in recent months, with several prominent members of various gangs gunned down, although investigators have been cautious about drawing direct links between individual shootings.

Last month, another shooting in Port Moody outside a recreation centre killed Gurbinder Singh Toor, 35, who was identified as a member of the Dhak-Dhure group.

Toor's death came several weeks after another well-known gang member, Ranjit Cheema, was killed in a drive-by shooting in Vancouver.

In late April, Thomas Gisby, who headed his own gang known as the Gisby Group, was shot dead in a coffee shop in Mexico.

And in January, gangster Sandip Duhre was fatally shot in a posh bar of a downtown Vancouver hotel.

Naicker was convicted in 2006 along with Harpreet Narwal of kidnapping, confinement and extortion.

The pair kidnapped Harpreet Singh because they believed Singh was responsible for a missing marijuana shipment destined for the United States that was worth $400,000.

Their trial heard that Naicker and Narwal threatened to kill Singh and members of his family unless he paid them the $400,000.

Singh managed to escape, running to a nearby fast food restaurant, where he climbed through the drive-thru window until staff called for help.

Naicker and Narwal appealed the case to the Supreme Court of Canada, which dismissed the case and upheld their convictions.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2012