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."