BIG CITY GANGS IN GUELPH?

GUELPH - Guelph's "worst nightmare" -- a senseless, gang-related homicide --
could come true, warns a local police officer.

If Guelph does not keep a handle on the drug situation in the city,
then Toronto-style gangs will form here, said Constable Cliff Russell
of the Guelph Police intelligence unit.

Guelph is still a safe place to live and raise a family, but the
presence of street gangs is developing, he told the Guelph Police
Services Board yesterday.

Toronto gang members come to Guelph daily to deliver their drugs to
local dealers and then return to the Greater Toronto Area, he said.

That's where most drugs in Guelph, like cocaine, are coming from, he
said.

High-profile gun violence in Toronto has led police there to put
resources into their guns and gangs units in last few years and make
arrests.

"That pressure on the gangs drove them out of the GTA and right down
the 401 corridor into Guelph," Russell said, adding the problem is not
unique to the Royal City.

Gang-style graffiti found in Guelph shows that street gangs are
influencing local youth, he said.

The graffiti includes words, U.S. penal code numbers, crowns and gang
colours like red or blue.

When the graffiti is crossed out by another gang's colour, it signals
one group of people disrespecting another, Russell said.

This type of graffiti in Guelph means that youth are beginning to
emulate what happens in bigger cities, he said.

"These are all ingredients. We've got the local mentality. We've got
the outside influence. Now they're starting to put names to what
they're doing," he said, explaining that the labels groups give
themselves are based on their neighbourhoods.

Sergeant Tom Gill, who oversees Guelph Police's drug and intelligence
units, said these groups are found all over Guelph, not just in the
high-density Willow Road area.

Drugs and prostitution are ways that gangs generate income, he
said.

In the last couple of years, Guelph Police began noticing a new
phenomenon in local gang activity, Russell said. Gang members from
Montreal and Nova Scotia have been bringing girls to Guelph for
prostitution.

"You arrest them. You put them in jail. They get out. They come back.
That's not a very nice picture but that's what Guelph looks like right
now," he said.

Guelph does not yet have a homegrown gang, he said, but problems come
with gang members who pass through the city to do business.

For example, a local man shot at a drug dealer from out of town as
both of their cars sped past the downtown police headquarters during
the middle of the day in late 2006. No one was hurt.

"We need a sustained effort to deal with, predominantly, drugs,"
Russell said.

"If we can keep that effort up or increase it, then we're going to,
effectively, do what Toronto has done -- put the pressure on them.
They'll go somewhere else."