SHACKLED MAN FOUND IN CRACK HOUSE TORTURE CHAMBER

Prince George RCMP say they discovered a torture chamber in a crack
house last week, and one of its victims was still bound there when
they burst in.

According to police, they were given tips from the public and searched
a house in the 2200 block of Norwood Street on July 30. Passersby
heard suspicious sounds coming from the house and when police entered
to investigate, screams were heard coming from the basement.

"While investigating the residence, members found the basement and a
shackled man," said RCMP spokeswoman Const. Lesley Dix, who added that
there has been a number of recent incidents that have exposed "a world
of drug abuse and torture" the likes of which the city has never seen.

Details about the shackled man were not disclosed because the case is
important and sensitive, and part of a pattern, Dix said.

"We have a number of forcible confinement charges awaiting approval
and this incident was being added to those charges," she said.

"They are connected through the organized crime drug trade and we
could be dealing with some of the same players in some of the charges
that are pending, and they are all connected to the Independent Soldiers."

The Independent Soldiers have stepped into a lead role lately in the
local drug trade, Mounties said, since the prior dominant street gang,
the Crew, suffered heavy losses to police. The Crew, court documents
have revealed, were ruthless and, said Dix "very, very violent" with
documented incidents of body mutilation and vicious pain inflicted on
its victims. But this new group is worse and "right now we are very
concerned for public safety."

The torturing, she said, is a terror tactic gang enforcers are using
on those who don't pay drug debts as little as $100. The beatings are
severe and can go on for days.

"This is their way, with this extortion and kidnapping and beating, to
show who is boss and to make them an example if they don't pay or if
they steal from each other," Dix said.

"When you are shackled in the basement of a building, you could
imagine the fear of not knowing when the torture will end. The
psychological fear is something that is used on the victim."

While some of this violence and mental anguish is being forced on
members of the gangs themselves, most of it is happening to common
addicts who get in over their head, Dix explained. These are members
of the general public, "absolutely people's sons and daughters with
loving families," who are the victims of torture.