Pubdate: Mon, 14 Jan 2008
Source: Prince George Citizen (CN BC)
Copyright: 2008 Prince George Citizen
Contact:  http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/350
Author: Frank Peebles,Citizen Staff
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

GANG ACTIVITY GROWING IN THE NORTH

Gang activity is growing in strength in the Northern B.C. region, 
according to Mounties, just as it is growing in Prince George and in 
the Lower Mainland. Violence is not expected to rise in an inordinate 
way, but rise it will, if it follows the trends.

"There are 129 organized crime groups identified in B.C., seven of 
whom are operating in the North," said North District RCMP 
headquarters spokesman Const. Craig Douglass. "That number has 
tripled since 2003 but we also have tracking systems that are much 
better now so they have been here all along, or they might be recent 
additions. It is hard to tell, but we are aware of them here."

The province has a police task force dedicated to undermining 
organized crime gangs. RCMP Sgt. Shinder Kirk speaks for the unit and 
he told The Citizen that these 129 groups are everything from three 
or four people who work together in a crime venture on up to the most 
organized and entrenched of them all, the B.C. Hells Angels.

In Prince George the three principal gangs are The Renegades 
Motorcycle Club, The Crew and The Independent Soldiers, but there are 
others with fingers into the northern capital and others operating in 
Peace-country where oil and gas money is plentiful and the lifestyle 
is often rough around the edges.

"I would certainly say it is growing to some extent, like the coming 
in of the Independent Soldiers and groups from Alberta moving their 
activities into the northeast," Douglass said. "There is an increased 
amount of communication and co-operation among themselves, reaching 
agreements and that sort of thing."

In spite of the relationships, many of the organized crime groups 
aren't that organized, however. Police in Prince George have noticed 
a lack of any loyalty among the low-level drug dealers and other 
pawns on the street. A mercenary attitude seems to currently exist, 
The Citizen was told, and that holds true in the regional scene as well.

"We find these groups aren't as structured, aren't that organized, it 
is a loose group doing a loose set of things," Kirk said. "They are 
often very fluid in their composition, in their makeup, in their 
criminal activity. They use a group name as a means of doing 
business, but it is not organized in the traditional sense of the 
word. The outlaw motorcycle gangs are not that way; they are highly 
organized. The Hells Angels are almost fanatically organized."

Douglass said much of the organized crime activity in the North is 
based on trafficking in powder cocaine, crack and heroin and on the 
growing of marijuana. On another level, Douglass said, the public has 
to face organized crime in connection to the houses that get broken 
into, the cars that get stolen, the bad cheques that are written, the 
local people who get beaten up over $20 drug debts, the local girls 
who are indentured into survival sex, the kids that drug dealers 
approach on the school playground, etc. All of it is a result of 
drugs, the flagship commodity in the gang industry.

With the opening of the Port of Prince Rupert, authorities are 
expecting to see a marked increase in the North in drugs, weapons, 
child pornography, slavery (sex- and extortion-based) and other 
ultra-illegal activities gangs revel in although no tangible leads 
have come to pass. Some of those activities were already going on in 
Prince Rupert due to the old port, and it is an inevitable 
circumstance wherever international shipping takes place, said the Mounties.

Douglass said Northern B.C.'s law enforcement officials, and there 
are many other than the RCMP, meet on a regular basis to share 
information and work together to fight organized crime. They have the 
violent lessons of the Lower Mainland as a stark incentive to target 
those criminal organizations.

"Typically they target each other (when violent), but that's not to 
say people nearby can't get hurt," Douglass said.

Kirk said the financial stakes are so high and the people involved so 
dysfunctional that total disregard for human life has been plainly 
demonstrated many times over and northern residents need to know it 
is coming to our communities too. However, both he and Douglass agree 
that many regions have been successful in keeping organized crime at 
bay. It takes the will and direct action of the public to do that.

"Everyone has a role to play in this - people who are out there 
living their lives, trying to raise their children," Kirk said. "We 
have a duty to report even the tidbits and nuggets that we might know 
about crimes and the people doing crime. Get involved in doing that, 
get involved in positive adult living so young people see that is the 
way to live not these other ways to live, and by getting involved in 
building a school group, a community association, a neighbourhood 
watch, citizens on patrol... When you do these things, you put the 
community in a position to notice this other stuff going on, and then 
you report it."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom