Adela Etibako, centre, and three of her three children died in May 2006 in an east Vancouver house fire that investigators believe was set deliberately. (Richard Lam/Canadian Press)

Police concocted an elaborate criminal organization to elicit a confession from a man later charged with five counts of first-degree murder in a 2006 house fire in east Vancouver, B.C. Supreme Court heard Tuesday.

Nathan Fry is being tried before a jury in Vancouver after the townhouse fire on the night of May 15 killed Adela Etibako, three of her children and the girlfriend of her 17-year-old son, who survived the blaze.

The court heard details of the "Mr. Big Operation" that resulted in a videotaped confession by Fry, who was 17 at the time of the fire.

The scheme was outlined by an undercover police officer whose name cannot be published under a court-imposed ban.

Fry was arrested and charged after RCMP officers staged a range of scenarios designed to make him believe he was entering a criminal syndicate, where hurting women and children was tolerated, court was told.

Undercover police officers played the roles of bikers, gangsters, smugglers, customs officers and other law enforcement and government officials.

Members of the concocted operation took part in activities such as passing around money-stuffed envelopes and going on fancy trips. But they all had to show undying loyalty to the big boss, also played by an undercover officer, and would suffer consequences if they lied, the court heard.

Crown to present video next week

Court was told Fry was involved in dozens of such scenarios, where he travelled across Canada to buy, sell and deliver illegal goods on behalf of his crime family, the court heard.

The environment was meant to make it easy for Fry to confess to starting the fatal fire while the boss came across as someone who would do anything to protect his criminal family, including paying off law enforcement for crimes committed by his subordinates.

Crown prosecutors are expected to present to the court next week Fry's video confession to the undercover officer posing as the big boss who had questioned him about the house fire.

The Crown believes Fry set the gasoline-fuelled fire because he believed Bolingo Etibako, who survived the fire, had told police that he had been involved in two stabbings in 2005. Both Etibako and Fry were charged in the stabbings but neither was convicted.

Etibako escaped the fire through a second-floor window but suffered serious burns to his hands and arms. He had multiple surgeries in the two and a-half months he spent in the burn unit, and has undergone psychiatric therapy since his ordeal.