GANG WARS

Kamloops RCMP are keeping close tabs on gangs and organized crime in
town. But what can people on the sidelines expect?

When criminal gangs clash, guns and violence often play a role. And
when that happens, innocent people can get hurt.

Kamloops RCMP are determined to make sure gang violence experienced
in other cities doesn't migrate here - Insp. Yves Lacasse wants the
public to know police aren't waiting for it to start before they do something.

The detachment recently created a full-time organized crime
co-ordinator position to share information with law enforcement
across the country, keep tabs on the movers and shakers in the gang
and organized crime community, and make arrests accordingly.

"We are very alive to the issues involving gang violence and the drug
trade," Lacasse said, citing a recent stabbing in the city.

"Within hours we had an army of 100 officers with a clear purpose and
a clear focus. We did believe it involved gangs at this time, and we
spent the time and the effort to resolve this case as soon as possible."

RCMP believe the incident may have involved the Independent Soldiers
- - a street gang based in Western Canada with cells in Vancouver,
Kelowna and Calgary - and the United Nations gang, an organized
criminal group made up of many nationalities.

Competition between gangs - and the resulting violence - is making
regular headlines in other cities. According to Sgt. Shinder Kirk of
the B.C. Integrated Gang Task Force in Vancouver, once one group is
pushed, it's only a matter of time before the other side pushes back.

"There's always the possibility of retaliation. There is no hiding
that," he said."Certainly some of the cases we've seen in the past
year or so could have been that - retaliation."

The motives behind gang violence are as difficult to decipher as the
groups themselves, Kirk said. A drive-by shooting leaves little in
the way of forensic evidence outside of a shell casing that can be
bought at any gun store.

The weapons - handgun, shotgun or submachine gun - are usually
illegally smuggled across the border from the U.S., he said.

"They aren't stolen from Canada in some break and enter," Kirk said.

The knife is pulled or the shot fired because of some slight or
perceived slight. Sometimes a blow is struck because of a business
deal gone wrong or a fight over a woman.

The most common commodity gangs battle over are drugs. Almost every
group Lacasse has come across makes money off narcotics and related
crimes. Kirk said Internet fraud, scams and guns are also sources of
profit and conflict.

"They are fighting for the turf, fighting for the location to sell
their drugs. Whether it be a bar, a town, a certain area of town,
they are fighting for control of the drug trade," Lacasse said.

"Obviously, when they are crossing each other and not agreeing,
unlike most business people who sit down at a table, they resort to violence."

Most of the people involved know each other in some way. Many are
part of the same gang or have been at one time or another.

These people, Kirk said, are friends one minute, enemies the next.

Kirk calls these groups mid-level gangs. They aren't the street-level
dial-a-doper and they aren't as organized or wide-reaching as mafia.

Members are largely young people in their 20s from a variety of
ethnic backgrounds. Some, like the Independent Soldiers or UN Gang,
develop a moniker for themselves.

"People are left with the impression that these are large, monolithic
entities like organized crime, but they're not," he said.

"They are loosely structured and may have some or no hierarchy
whatsoever. They may be a group of people that come together for a
particular project and then disband."

What often happens, Kirk said, is that an individual or group arrives
in a community and adopts the name of one of these organizations.
This empowers them to conduct business by creating a sense of
intimidation and fear.

Why have they come to Kamloops? Kirk said the city's geographical
location as a transportation crossroads makes it an ideal place for
gangs to ply their trade.

"Any community that affords an ability to make money - whether it be
through the drug trade or less scrutiny by authorities or simply
being able to blend into the background - is some place for these
groups to establish themselves."

Their presence concerns Lacasse, who cited more than 20 gang-related
killings in the Lower Mainland in less than two years. Many of the
shootings occurred in the open and on busy streets.

He called the gangs "travelling criminals," and said the worry for
him and his detachment is that this kind of violence is making it to Kamloops.

"Is there a possibility that this could happen in Kamloops one day?
Absolutely. I hope not. Our job is to prevent this from happening," he said.

"We are not there now. I do not want the community and the city of
Kamloops to worry, but they have to be alert to this issue."