CRIME GANGS GETTING MORE ORGANIZED

Use Of Latest Technology, Mergers Cited In Report

A growing problem with organized crime is that it's getting more organized.

A report released yesterday by province's criminal information
service, which pools information from various police forces in the
province, says there are now more than 300 criminal groups active in
Quebec and they are increasingly working with each other and using
the latest technologies to pursue illicit activities.

"Organized crime is becoming more complex," said Montreal police
chief Yvan Delorme, who heads the information service's management
committee. "They work with the Internet, with all the new technology.
All the gangs now have their whiz kids with technological know-how.
Organized crime has no more borders. What we're seeing is the
globalization of organized crime."

As in the corporate world, criminal organizations resort increasingly
to mergers to extend their activities,

"We're seeing more and more mergers between different gangs," Delorme
said. "They're working together at different levels."

For example, bikers import cocaine and then distribute it to street
gangs that retail the product, the report says.

The drug trade is the principal criminal activity in Quebec, the
report says, with different groups specializing in specific areas,
from financing to importing to retailing.

Other crime activities include telemarketing fraud, money laundering,
theft and fencing stolen goods, vehicle theft, prostitution and
illegal firearms.

The report says the visible growth of street gangs has been the most
notable aspect of criminal activity during the past year and that
street gangs tend to be most prone to violence, including in the
province's prison system.

However, Delorme said that, on the whole, street gang violence is in
decline. "We're not seeing more violence in the streets of Montreal
with street gangs."

Street gangs are the main preoccupation of the Montreal police force,
but are now spreading their tentacles to other parts of the province,
the report says. Street gangs are mainly engaged in drug selling and
prostitution, though they are also actively involved in bank fraud
through debit cards that are bought from young people, or cloned.

Home invasions are another growing street gang activity.

To fight the criminals, the police are doing what the criminals are
doing - pooling resources and keeping up with the latest technology,
Delorme said.

"The information service is a tool for police departments to exchange
information, to follow the development of crime in Quebec and the
rest of Canada. We have to be ahead of them in the use of technology
to fight organized crime."

Delorme stressed citizen co-operation with police forces is vital in
the continuing battle with organized crime.

"If we don't have the complicity of citizens, we won't be able to do
the job. It's important if people see something going on in their
vicinity that they call Info-Crime, something they can do anonymously
and in security."