DELTA, B.C. - More top-rank members of a group police say is a major player in Metro Vancouver's bloody gang war over drugs have been charged and police are now on the lookout for anyone who might be trying to fill the leadership void.

On Friday, five men police say are members of the UN Gang were charged with conspiracy to murder three brothers who investigators believe are at the top of a rival gang.

The five join three other alleged UN Gang members who were charged with conspiracy last month.

"Certainly, it (the charges) has a profound effect on the leadership of the group," Cpl. Dale Carr, of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, said in an interview.

The group is charged with plotting to kill Jonathan, James and Jarrod Bacon.

Gang investigators have said in the past the three brothers are the leaders of the Red Scorpions -- a group police have implicated in the murders of six men in a Surrey apartment in the fall of 2007.

Two of the dead were innocent bystanders in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Almost two dozen people have died since January in Vancouver in what police describe as "targeted hits."

The violence has put Vancouver in an international spotlight as it prepares to host the world next year during the winter Olympics.

Clayton Roueche, one of the UN Gang's founders, pleaded guilty late last month to trying to import more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana into the United States. He will be sentenced Sept. 18.

Carr described the five charged Friday as "front-line soldiers" and "key leaders."

"They are now either in jail or about to be in jail and that will definitely have a profound effect on their operation," Carr said Friday.

Meanwhile, the Bacon brothers and some of their associates have also been charged and are in custody.

One of them has already pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Dennis Karbovanec was given a life sentence with no chance of parole for 15 years.

Carr said while the two groups may be crippled, police are aware there may be people waiting to step up and take over their operations.

"We're alive to the fact that may well happen," he said."Our role as law enforcement is to stay on top of that and ensure it doesn't get out of hand."

Besides the charges, Carr also said police seized a stash of $265,000 in cash, volumes of cocaine, heroin, marijuana, ecstasy and prescription drugs, more than 20 guns and over 100,000 rounds of ammunition.

There were also explosive devices, including grenades, Carr said.

Officers worked with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. immigration authorities as well as police in Alberta, Ontario and Quebec to lay the arrests.

Barzan Tilli-Choli, 26, Karwan Saed, 32, and Aram Ali, 23, were each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit murder last month. They are in custody.

Soroush Ansari, Dilun Heng, Daniel Russell, Yong Sung John Lee and John William Croitoru were charged Friday with conspiracy to commit murder.

They are not in custody and Canada-wide arrest warrants have been issued for their arrests.