Boom lures gangs: report

Alberta wealth fuels growth of crime groups

By Jason van Rassel

Calgary Herald, June 8, 2006, page A1

 
Sophisticated organized crime groups are putting down deeper roots and entering several illegal -- and legal -- businesses to capitalize on Alberta's booming economy, the province's law enforcement agencies say in an intelligence report released Wednesday.

Outlaw biker gangs are establishing puppet clubs to expand their influence over the drug trade throughout the province while two Calgary street gangs, FOB and FK, continue to wage a bloody feud for power and prestige that has already claimed at least four lives since 2002.

Amid the violence and the shifting alliances documented by the Criminal Intelligence Service Alberta in its annual report, there is also new evidence a large Asian crime syndicate in Calgary has quietly spread its tentacles into many illegal rackets while resisting attempts by police to shut them down.

"Another Asian-based organized crime group has been a significant enforcement priority, having connections to virtually every organized crime group in the Calgary area," the report says. "A large number of legitimate holdings facilitate the laundering of money from several diverse activities such as marihuana cultivation, distribution and exportation, loan sharking, methamphetamine production and distribution."

That intelligence, however, hasn't been enough for police to make any significant arrests.

"The organization has been targeted a number of times but has not been disrupted as the leaders have insulated themselves well from law enforcement," the report says.

Creating distance between the major players and their criminal activities is a long-standing tactic used by outlaw motorcycle gangs, and Criminal Intelligence Service Alberta says the province's dominant group -- the Hells Angels -- continues to do just that by creating puppet clubs such as Iron Steed and Deaths Hand.

The core membership in Alberta's three Hells Angels chapters, meanwhile, remains steady at about 60.

In the north, CISA says Hells Angels from B.C. "subsidize" a criminal group in Grande Prairie, while their Alberta counterparts back drug traffickers in Fort McMurray.

There is also evidence an Edmonton-based Asian gang, the Crazy Dragons, has been involved in Calgary's FOB-FK feud and is aligning itself with aboriginal gangs to get drugs into reserve communities.

"Drugs are the engine that drives that machine as far as organized crime goes," said Staff Sgt. Wes Elliott of the RCMP's drug section in Calgary.

Crack cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine are the three dominant street drugs changing hands in the province.

The Hells Angels' historical dominance of the crystal meth trade remains unchanged, according to CISA, but a "traditional organized crime group" in Calgary is responsible for selling large amounts of cocaine and other drugs to other gangs.

"The group is (also) believed to be involved in illegal gaming, prostitution, loan-sharking, frauds and the fencing of stolen property," CISA says.

The agency doesn't specify whether the group is an established Mafia family, but an author of several books on the Italian mob said Alberta's wealth is a powerful lure.

Antonio Nicaso wrote in his book Bloodlines that a Toronto-based Mafia family considered buying Calgary nightclubs about five years ago as a way to launder money and establish a presence here.

"That's the trend: everybody is looking at Alberta for possible investment," Nicaso said Wednesday.

Organized crime groups have successfully expanded in part because of their ability to co-operate and move beyond borders, while police have been slower to do the same thing, Nicaso said.

"Police promise to increase the level of co-operation, but, practically, they are doing very little," he said.

Provincial officials, however, point to several joint-forces operations and integrated units that have seized significant amounts of drugs.

The Southern Alberta Marijuana Investigative Team -- made up of Calgary police and RCMP members -- seized nearly 60,000 marijuana plants worth an estimated $68 million last year.

Solicitor General Harvey Cenaiko said the province plans to create new joint initiatives to complement SAMIT and the Integrated Response to Organized Crime.

Cenaiko's department recently proposed the formation of a provincewide squad of drug investigators, in response to a government task force seeking strategies to fight crystal meth.

The government added 60 members to IROC in 2005, and Cenaiko said he envisions doubling that number with the creation of the drug squad.

"It'll have a tremendous impact," he said.