Shane Cameron (left), 45, and Cameron Cole (right), 41, are heading to trial in BC Supreme Court related to charges which were laid in the heat of a 2024 Kamloops gang conflict.

(LEVI LANDRY / iNFOnews.ca)

Prosecutors are taking two Kamloops men straight to trial as they face drug trafficking and gun charges. The men were initially charged during the height of a local gang conflict last spring.

Crown prosecutors streamlined the process on Jan. 30 when a judge agreed to move the case forward through direct indictment.

Co-accused Shane Bradley Cameron, 45, and Cameron Ronald Ross Cole, 41, are facing seven criminal charges each. Cole has been charged with four additional weapon's offences.

The first set of charges came on May 2 and coincided with an escalation in an already-brewing gang conflict.

Kamloops RCMP said those charges followed a "significant seizure" a year earlier, when members of the detachment's Targeted Enforcement Unit seized 4.5 kilograms of various drugs, including three kilograms of fentanyl, a kilogram of cocaine and 550 grams of methamphetamine. They also seized guns, cash and vehicles from a home in the city's Bachelor Heights neighbourhood.

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The first in a string of brazen shootings followed the evening after those charges were approved. The shootings came after months of violence most publicly seen through a series of arsons in the spring of 2024, some of which police later confirmed were connected to the gang conflict.

Another gun-related charge was filed against Cole after police allegedly caught him on May 3 with a handgun. Kamloops RCMP wouldn't say whether the arrest was connected to a Brocklehurst neighbourhood shooting that morning.

Cameron and Cole both have a history of gang-related activity in Kamloops.

Cole was implicated in a drug and weapons seizure in 2018, while Cameron directed attackers to carve the word "rat" into a man's chest as retaliation for his suspected cooperation with police.

Kamloops RCMP warned the public on May 8 that Cole and Justin Christopher Hunt were targets in the conflict on opposing sides and people should steer clear of them. Sheriffs noticeably bolstered security at the Kamloops courthouse on days Cole was scheduled to appear. In the parking lot of a North Shore pub, he was shot at midday in July, but he survived.

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On Jan. 30, BC Supreme Court Justice Brad Smith allowed federal prosecutors to proceed by direct indictment, which was done without the accused or their lawyers present.

It's not clear when the trials for Cole and Cameron will begin as lawyers still have to schedule days with the court, but the direct indictment process means it will skip a preliminary hearing in order to speed up the process. They were previously scheduled for trials in provincial court, expected to conclude in 2026.

Both remain out of custody and on conditions, with the most stringent placed on Cole who is wearing an electronic monitor and must abide by a curfew after paying a $15,000 bail deposit, according to court records.

Hunt, meanwhile, is in custody after a conviction related to a Lower Mainland robbery earlier this year.

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