ORGANIZED CRIME NETWORKS TARGET EDSON, RCMP SAY

The RCMP has spoken publicly about organized criminal networks
operating in rural areas surrounding Edmonton including the Town of Edson.

Sergeant Jim Desautels of the Edson RCMP said these networks,
including motorcycle clubs and youth gangs, were attracted to the
business opportunities they believe Edson's growing transient
population offered.

"It's no different than McDonald's having a franchise here; crime
groups have franchises all over the place. And typically what the
crime groups think is 'where do people go every Friday and Saturday
night to have fun?', well they go to the bars, so of course they have
people in bars doing their thing, selling drugs, taking illegal
debts, loaning money, trading stolen property," Desautels said.

"Edson's an area where we have a population of people who live in
motels because they're here to work in the oil-patch, they're here
for maybe a week or a month or a couple of months at a time, and some
of these people use drugs," he said.

"So the higher-ups in the organization know 'we've got a good market
in Edson so let's put some people in position there to sell things to them'."

Desautels said the "good market in Edson" also created the demand
that encouraged other criminal activities.

"How many thefts from vehicles do we have a week? And how many thefts
from well sites and attempted break-ins? Probably 90 per cent of all
these crimes were committed to feed and fuel the drug habit. Which in
turn supports the drug industry," Desautels said.

In Edmonton, the RCMP's Staff Sergeant Dave Wilkinson agreed.

"I would suggest that a larger percentage of the crime in your
community is driven by the drug trade and for example, vehicle
break-ins. A lot of those types of offences are committed by people
with addiction issues," Wilkinson said.

Wilkinson is the criminal operations co-ordinator for the Metro
Edmonton Gang Unit, a task force that has established the difference
between Organized Crime Groups (OCG) such as the Hells Angels from
the smaller criminal network (street gangs) who carry out the dirty
work on behalf of the OCGs.

"(Street gangs are) really the main force behind the majority of drug
trafficking anywhere in the province of Alberta," Wilkinson said.

The Metro Edmonton Gang Unit has identified at least 18 street gangs
in Edmonton involved in such a client-based relationship.

"I would suggest any one of those 18 networks probably control the
majority of the drug sales production and supply to the communities
you live in outside of Edmonton," Wilkinson said.

"The way they would approach that is to come into a community and
ascertain who the local dealers are and then, in most cases by means
of violence, take over the drug-trafficking and trade in that
locality," he said.

Wilkinson said that OCGs determined the communities to set up shop by
following the demand for their product.

"There's a high percentage of transient populations that moves in and
out of the communities. In those particular instances when people
have a lot of cash and they're moving around between localities,
there's a higher demand for controlled substances and drugs," Wilkinson said.

"Again I go back to the issue of the criminal networks they're just
part of the transient population. You've got transient workers,
you've got transient criminals."

Sergeant Desautels said it was because OCGs target Edson's transient
population that their activities were largely kept out of the public eye.

"A lot of it is not really visible on the surface, you've got to dig
down and read between the lines," Desautels said.

"The average person doesn't see it unless you're dealing with the
effects of it like social services, the hospitals, the nurses who see
the overdoses and the people that are suicidal because they can't get
off the drugs, things like that. That's the bottom end of the whole
thing," he said.

However Desautels added there was a risk, especially in relation to
young people, of glamorizing the gang culture.

"I'm not going to call it gang activity because I think in some
respects it even romanticizes it a bit, these are definitely criminal
organizations," he said.

Desautels' concern for youth involvement in gang activity has also
been reflected in several recent reports on the emerging gang culture
in Alberta.

A 2006 report by the joint government and community group The
Community Solution to Gang Violence isolated several risk and
protective factors for communities including an availability of drugs
in the community, high residential mobility, and a community's lack
of understanding of gang violence issues.

The report found that family and community involvement with young
people reduced the risk levels of them getting involved with gangs.

The Town of Edson's recreation co-ordinator, Andrea Laboucane, said
Edson has been proactive in giving youths alternatives to the gang culture.

"The only way to really affect choice is to be close to that youth,
to have contact with them," Laboucane said.

"Which is what we try to do through our youth inter-agency and have
other events with that teens can go to to learn about alternatives to
drugs and alcohol and what they can do instead of doing those kinds
of activities," she said.

However Laboucane said community groups could influence the choices
young people make only so far.

"It goes back to the home. Where the kids who are actually involved
in something positive it's because their parents probably helped them
sign up and are watching their hockey game or their basketball game,"
Laboucane said.

"It could be a lot worse as Edson's grown so much in the last few
years and there's so many new people moving into town," she said.