British Columbia's illegal marijuana industry will be dealt a heavy economic blow if Californians vote to legalize pot Tuesday, says a criminology professor who has studied the effect of B.C. bud for more than a decade. Darryl Plecas, criminology professor at the University of the Fraser Valley and director of the Centre for Criminal Justice Research, predicts that decriminalizing pot in California would have a significant economic impact on the illegal trade of B.C. marijuana -- and would weaken organized crime groups. [continues 317 words]
Could Weaken Gangs: Expert British Columbia's illegal marijuana industry will be dealt a heavy economic blow if Californians vote to legalize pot Tuesday, says a criminology professor who has studied the effect of B.C. bud for more than a decade. Darryl Plecas, criminology professor at the University of the Fraser Valley, predicts that decriminalizing pot in California would have a significant economic impact on the illegal trade of B.C. marijuana -- and would weaken organized crime groups. "The single biggest fuel for organized crime in B.C. is grow-ops," says Plecas. "It's hard to imagine it could not have some significant impact." [continues 461 words]
Legalizing Pot South of Border Likely to Put Big Dent in Trade of Locally Grown Bud, Says Criminologist B.C.'s illegal marijuana industry will be dealt a heavy economic blow if Californians vote to legalize pot in the Golden State on Tuesday, says a criminology professor who has studied the impact of B.C. bud for more than a decade. Darryl Plecas, criminology professor at the University of Fraser Valley and director of the Centre for Criminal Justice Research, says decriminalizing pot in California would have a huge economic impact on the illegal trade of B.C. bud -- and would weaken organized-crime groups. [continues 577 words]
An eight-month probe into two Vancouver pot "brokers" has culminated in the arrests of four people and seizure of two cars, a house and more than $100,000 in cash. Vancouver police revealed the details of "Project Trapdoor" on Thursday, saying the bust had made a significant impact on the local drug trade. "Anecdotally, we can say it created a significant gap in the organization and distribution of marijuana among certain groups. There was an immediate effect felt on the street, particularly with some groups that were moving large amounts of marijuana," said Sgt. Brad Desmarais, who works with the gangs and drug section. [continues 426 words]
Police Say They Could Become Caught In Gang-Warfare Crossfire Abbotsford Police Chief Bob Rich warned yesterday that even high-school kids involved at the lowest levels of drug dealing may be targets of gang violence. The warning comes in the wake of four killings of young men in Abbotsford over the past two months, including two high-school students. Police believe all four men were targeted for their perceived associations to the notorious Bacon brothers and their Red Scorpion gang. [continues 491 words]
Wants Senate To Ratify Arms Treaty U.S. President Barack Obama's push to crack down on weapons smuggling is an encouraging move that could help B.C.'s war on drugs, according to a B.C. political science professor. But others aren't so sure and say Obama's announcement is nothing more than "smoke and mirrors." Last week, Obama backed Mexico's war on its violent drug cartels, calling for a crackdown on weapons trafficking and admitting shared responsibility. [continues 453 words]
Downtown Eastside Facility Aims to Stop the Cycle of Chronic Offending, Provide Remedial Services Each day, Judge Thomas Gove drives along East Hastings Street, where the battered lives of strung-out drug addicts, desperate prostitutes and drunken men exist in plain view. Of course, the judge doesn't have to take this route to work. "I could avoid going through the area," he says. "But I don't, because it's important to remind myself that this is a problem happening right on the streets -- and we've got to do something about it." [continues 953 words]
Red Hook was once to Brooklyn what the Downtown Eastside is to Vancouver. The waterfront neighbourhood was known for poverty and drug-fuelled violence throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In 1988, Life magazine described it as one of the most crack-infested neighbourhoods in the U.S. -- a reputation that was solidified in 1992, when a popular elementary school principal was caught in crossfire between rival gangs and shot dead. The death of Patrick Daly is widely believed to be the reason Red Hook established a community court eight years ago. [continues 394 words]
Data Not Keeping Pace With Gang Growth Police are handcuffed in fighting gangs because they simply don't have enough information on the burgeoning number of criminal organizations, experts say. There has been no comprehensive research done on gangs in B.C. in the past several years, even though academic experts acknowledge the gang landscape has changed dramatically since the 1990s -- the last time any research was undertaken. "[In the 1980s and 1990s] there were more easily-identifiable, named groups and they were very much strutting their stuff in the manner of Hollywood movies," said Robert Gordon, a criminology professor at Simon Fraser University. [continues 567 words]
Mother's Trip Stopped Over Old Conviction Glendene Grant should have been in Las Vegas last week, meeting with investigators about her missing daughter, whom she fears fell prey to human traffickers. Instead, she's at home in Kamloops after being denied entry to the U.S. over a 21-year-old drug conviction. "I haven't unpacked my bags. I have to get back down there," Grant said through tears on Friday. Since Grant's daughter, Jessie Foster, went missing in Las Vegas more than a year ago, the Kamloops mother has made three trips to the city to search for her daughter. [continues 504 words]
U.S. Border Guard Googled Vancouver Psychotherapist Andrew Feldmar, a Vancouver psychotherapist, took his first hit of acid in 1967 at the age of 27. He took his last seven years later. Anyone can learn this within minutes of doing a Google search of Feldmar's name -- personal information he says he'll never divulge online again after learning the hard way that it can, and will, be used against you. The 66-year-old is now barred from entering the U.S. after a border guard did a Web search last summer and read about Feldmar's experimental drug use from more than three decades ago. [continues 339 words]
Three Injured: Expert Says Feuding Parties Still Have Scores To Settle A shootout in a Richmond park last week is believed to be the beginning of vengeful score-settling over long-standing feuds between gangs in the Lower Mainland. A police source has told The Province that several groups in the Lower Mainland are currently hunting each other down over a number of prior incidents, a development that could lead to more violence in public places. The gunfire at Richmond's Dover Park last Thursday left three young men in their late 20s to early 30s seriously wounded. Some witnesses described hearing as many as 20 to 30 shots and bullets hit multiple homes. [continues 475 words]
A 30-year-old U.S. customs and border-patrol officer has been charged with helping smugglers sneak pot past the border in return for cash and sexual favours. Desmone Bastian, who lives in Surrey, was arrested last Thursday on a warrant charging him with receiving a bribe and importation of a controlled substance. The indictment filed in U.S. District Court alleges that Bastian deliberately failed to inspect vehicles entering the U.S. at the Blaine border crossing on Feb. 5, 2005, in return for cash and sexual favours. [continues 115 words]
Boat Allegedly Contained 210 Kg Of Ecstasy A gambling debt -- and the prospect of receiving a cash payment of $200,000 -- allegedly drove a Vancouver man to smuggle 210 kilograms of ecstasy from B.C. to Washington this month. That was the story Ka Wai Andy Cheung gave to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer on Oct. 20, shortly after his arrest in Washington, according to court documents. Cheung, along with three Vancouver men, are now facing drug-smuggling charges laid by U.S. federal prosecutors in Seattle. [continues 359 words]
Gang Membership Looks Good on TV but Not in Reality: Police Surrey RCMP have launched a girls-only after-school program to help girls stay away from gangs, drugs and crime. Rosie Thakar, the diversity co-ordinator for the Surrey RCMP, initiated the program for girls aged 12 to 17. They meet once a week for 1 1/2 hours and play sports or meet guest speakers to discuss issues important to teens. Surrey RCMP spokesman Roger Morrow said police want to do anything they can to educate teens on criminal activity, especially on youth gangs, which TV can glorify. [continues 220 words]
Border Guard Violated Sacred Trust, Said Judge Altaf Merali, the former Canadian customs officer who tried to smuggle nearly 100 kilograms of marijuana into Washington state in May, was sentenced to 18 months in jail on Friday. The 37-year-old father of two young boys was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release in B.C. following the jail term. In handing Merali the sentence in U.S. District Court in Seattle, Judge Ricardo Martinez said: "You were one of the few individuals trusted to protect the border between our countries and you violated that trust." [continues 117 words]
A Vernon man so fed up with drugs in his neighbourhood that he fought hammer-to-axe with a suspected drug dealer is sporting eight stitches for his efforts. The brawl began at about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday when the man, a tenant in the 1800-block 32nd Street, became angry at a suspected drug dealer coming through the fence by his apartment to deliver drugs to other residents. Tired of the frequent traffic past his home, the 32-year-old confronted the alleged dealer and told him to leave. [continues 190 words]
Promoter Says He Doesn't Do Pot, But Objects To U.S. Tactics After Winona, Martha and Michael, you knew there was no way of avoiding it: The T-shirt was inevitable. And sure enough, just six days after the arrest of Marc Emery, there it was on the Internet. Costing from $13.50 to $20, supporters of the Prince of Pot can get their pick of tees emblazoned with the phrase: "My Seed Supplier Was Extradited To The USA And All I Got Was This Stupid T-shirt!" [continues 137 words]
Prince Of Pot: Calls His Fight Against Extradition 'Ultimate Moment Of My Career' Marc Emery Is Closing In On Marijuana Mission Accomplished. As the longtime pot activist braces for his fight against extradition to the U.S. -- something he calls "the ultimate moment of my career" -- he credits the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency for giving him the platform of a lifetime for his crusade to legalize marijuana. "They might have made me into something bigger than anything I could accomplish on my own," he says. "I get the ultimate opportunity to represent my people." [continues 545 words]
Police Seize 164 Ecstasy Tablets, Three Grams Of Meth Thirteen people -- including five young offenders -- were arrested at the Fusion Dreams rave party at the Pacific Coliseum Saturday night after undercover police seized 84 ecstasy tablets, three grams of crystal meth and $2,300 in cash. The arrests resulted in 20 charges of trafficking and possession for the purposes of trafficking. Those arrested range in age from 14 to 51. "You'll often see 40- or 50-year-old drug dealers here selling ecstacy tablets," said Vancouver police spokesman Const. Howard Chow. [continues 292 words]
