Pubdate: Sun, 22 Jul 2001
Source: Quesnel Cariboo Observer (CN BC)
Copyright: 2001 Quesnel Cariboo Observer
Contact:  http://www.quesnelobserver.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1260
Author: Rolf Harrison
Bookmark: Outlaw Bikers http://www.mapinc.org/find?188

THE HELLS ANGELS IN QUESNEL?

WHEN YOU think of organized crime, you might picture Mafia mobsters 
or biker gangs.

But such prolific organizations are only part of a chain of 
traffickers. In a town the size of Quesnel, the RCMP encounter 
smaller criminal organizations, essentially lower-level distributors 
who score illegal drugs from big movers like the Hells Angels and 
resell the product here.

Though not as prominent, these informal networks operate in a similar 
fashion to the 18 or so major criminal organizations that the RCMP 
says conduct illegal activities in Canada, (or for that matter 
so-called "state organized crime" undertaken by undercover police and 
the secret service during investigations.)

"You often think of organized crime as the Hells Angles or the Mafia, 
but it goes beyond that," says corporal Bill Hansen of the Quesnel 
RCMP. "There are smaller versions. It can be any group of people who 
get together to conduct criminal activities."

The 23-year RCMP veteran worked in Surrey, Chase, Tumbler Ridge and 
Summerland before his eight years in Quensel, and now focuses on 
homicides. "Quesnel is clearly a smaller scale than the bikers and 
the Mafia, but you can draw similarities."

For starters, they have a leader, underlings, and a code of ethics, 
Hansen says.

Their revenue flows primarily from the drug trade, which has been 
called the world's third biggest economy. The RCMP estimates the 
trade is worth $4 billion at the wholesale level and $18 billion at 
the street level in Canada.

The smaller networks are not beyond bribing officials in political 
office, the civil service and the business world to grease the flow 
of illicit goods and services. (Internationally, it's estimated that 
as much as 40 per cent of drug profits are spent on bribes.)

Lawmakers and law enforcers have to cooperate with, form symbiotic 
relationships with and manage organized crime in order for such 
activities to exist, academics like prominent American sociologist 
William Chambliss say.

Criminal organizations big and small need accountants, lawyers and 
other professionals to protect their investments from the forces 
within government that oppose such crime: Quesnel doesn't have its 
own organized crime unit, but tackles the issue with the help of 
specialized units at the North District office in Prince George and 
the E Division in Vancouver.

Crime networks also require "legitimate" businesses to wash their 
revenue. Some of these businesses are set up for the sole purpose of 
providing a front for a criminal operation.

A prime example would be the rancher who owns cattle but makes the 
bulk of his income from growing marijuana on his land, Hansen says.

Other businesses, however, appear to profit unknowingly from 
organized crime, such as a bank washing blood money. Canadian banks 
launder between $5 and $17 billion a year, according to Ottawa's 
figures, or as much as $50 billion by other economists' estimates.

Ties between smaller organizations and major distributors are often a 
contact who deals in larger quantities from a city like Kelowna or 
Prince George, home to a substantive Hells Angels chapter.

There, they score drugs like cocaine and heroine, and redistribute 
them to street-level dealers here, Hansen says.

He doesn't rule out the possibility of one or some of Canada's 
over-200 Hells Angels members supplying direct to middlemen within 
Quesnel, but he says, "I don't know if the Hells Angels are here."

In 1999, the Criminal Intelligence Service of Canada reported that 
the Hells Angels initiated puppet gangs called the Talismen in 
Williams Lake and the Renegades in Prince George.

While heavy drugs are imported from those stops into Quesnel, 
marijuana is another story. Quesnel produces more weed than its 
population can consume and exports the cash crop elsewhere, Hansen 
points out. Three recent multi-million dollar pot busts back that up.

Aside from drugs, local organized criminals pimp prostitutes, steal 
cars and execute contract killings, Hansen says.

The activities of organized crime can be something as amateur as 
three kids breaking into homes. Or something that requires years of 
expertise. Hansen says organized crime is involved in "limitless 
activities," because it, like any business, is solely driven by 
profit.

But, from what Hansen has witnessed on the beat there are some key 
differences between major and local organizations.

For example, rival groups often set up unofficial boundaries to 
protect markets. The competing operations are stereotyped by police 
and the media as consisting of a single race, such as the Chinese 
triads or Jamaican posse. Hansen says he doesn't know of any such 
boundaries or race-based groups here in Quesnel.

But do local rivals compete for their share of Quesnel's vice market? 
Yes, Hansen affirms.

Local mobsters employ similar business strategies as other kingpins 
in a global crime industry.

And the sector has growing influence and political clout. As the RCMP 
reported in 1997, "Despite the best efforts of law enforcement, 
organized crime grows ever more powerful, with a potential for 
corruption that is unprecedented in the history of the world."
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