Pubdate: Mon, 12 Dec 2011 Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB) Copyright: 2011 Canwest Publishing Inc. Contact: http://www2.canada.com/calgaryherald/letters.html Website: http://www.calgaryherald.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66 Author: Jason Van Rassel, Calgary Herald GANGS RESILIENT DESPITE JAILINGS The violence between two rival Calgary gangs is at a low ebb with many of the main players dead or in prison, but the groups are still conducting their dangerous business. The Herald counted more than a dozen men with known ties to FOB or the FOB Killers (FK) who have been deported, are behind bars awaiting trial or are serving prison sentences, including two recently convicted of first-degree murder for the triple shooting homicide at the Bolsa Restaurant on New Year's Day 2009. Yet despite the jailings and at least 25 homicides between them, FOB and FK have remained resilient and have found others to continue trafficking drugs and accept the risk of going to prison or being killed by a vengeful rival gang member. "It'd be naive to say they all quit and went to university," said Insp. Kevin Forsen of the Calgary police organized crime section. Even though there hasn't been a homicide connected to the gang war in nearly three years, authorities believe the potential for violence still exists - and so do the gangsters themselves, considering police continue to encounter gang members wearing body armour and arming themselves with handguns in public. In June, police found a loaded .40-calibre pistol in a box hidden in the engine compartment of an SUV being driven by Roland Chin, a veteran of FOB dating back to its beginnings a decade ago. Chin, 28, is in jail awaiting sentence after being convicted of weapons offences in connection with the case last month. "The people who were willing to pull the trigger from years ago still have that same will," Forsen said. "They're being much more careful about it." Public outrage following the Bolsa killings likely played a role in curbing what had been years of bloodshed on city streets, Forsen said. FOB members Michael Roberto and Nathan Zuccherato are serving life sentences for first-degree murder for their role in the triple shooting, which allegedly involved two other men still awaiting trial. Witnesses testified Zuccherato, 25, and another man walked into Bolsa and shot FK member Sanjeev Mann and Aaron Bendle, a drug dealer whom they'd kidnapped the night before and forced to arrange a meeting with Mann. But it was what happened next that police credit with helping break the code of silence that allowed so many previous killings to go unpunished: Roberto, 28, shot and killed a bystander, Keni Su'a, who tried fleeing the restaurant. A city that might have been indifferent to gang violence up until then - - "it's OK as long as they kill each other" - saw the gangsters' disregard for human life extended to innocents. "That incident was a real shock to the whole community," Forsen said. "People realized we don't want to live in a city that tolerates that sort of behaviour." Most significantly for police, the revulsion extended to people connected to the conflict. "A lot of people involved in gang crime - it even shocked a lot of them," Forsen said. Indeed, it was revealed during the trial for Roberto and Zuccherato that police had an informant with links to FOB - a drug dealer dubbed "M.M." by the court - whose testimony provided key evidence for the prosecution. The Bolsa case was an important watershed for investigators, but it's not the only reason police have been able to prevent any further violence. In 2008, police established a gang suppression team to patrol innercity entertainment districts, keeping watch for gang and drug activity at popular nightspots. As well, gang members on bail or on parole following prison sentences are closely monitored to ensure they're following court-ordered curfews and conditions - and they're arrested and hit with new charges when they're not. The kind of sustained pressure in place now didn't exist prior to 2005, when Calgary police established an organized crime operations centre designed to co-ordinate investigations and share intelligence among investigators. The feud between FOB and FK has its roots about four years prior to that, when a dispute prompted some members of the original FOB gang to split into a rival faction that became known as the FOB Killers. At first the animosity spawned brawls, then stabbings - and by the end of 2002, gang members were shooting at each other in public. On Dec. 23, 2002, FK member Michael Oduneye opened fire in a parking lot full of Christmas shoppers at South-centre, seriously wounding FOB member Jason Youn. Less than a week later, someone killed FK members Linju (Billy) Ly and Vinh Le within hours of each other. The escalation prompted Calgary police to form a task force known as Operation Synergy, which succeeded in temporarily quelling the violence by sending several key figures to jail for drug and weapons offences - but none for murder. With its mission accomplished, however, police disbanded the Synergy task force. When the jailed gangsters started getting out of prison, the shootings and killings resumed at an unprecedented pace until 2009. The added resources in Calgary have been bolstered at the provincial level, with the formation of the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams. ALERT is an umbrella organization of more than 400 investigators from law enforcement agencies across the province with a mandate to fight serious and organized crime. Considering gangs like FOB and FK have demonstrated ties with criminal organizations in Edmonton and B.C.'s Lower Mainland, it has been important for police to transcend those jurisdictional boundaries too. "We've seen significant interprovincial activity between all four of the Western provinces," said Sgt. Dave Maze of Criminal Intelligence Service Alberta, one of the agencies that forms ALERT. Although police have expended significant effort to prevent violence between FOB and FK and disrupt their criminal enterprises, those two gangs are far from the only ones causing concern for authorities. Maze said ALERT is tracking 115 known criminal organizations in Alberta, and investigators continue to seize large amounts of drugs and weapons. Last year, ALERT operations resulted in charges against 702 people and investigators seized 655 kilograms of harvested marijuana, 100,615 marijuana plants, 29 kilograms of cocaine and 38 illegal firearms. "Violence isn't always a good indication of what's going on with organized crime in the province," Maze said. "The majority of the time, they're just ticking along, doing business." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.