POLICE WARN OF PUBLIC VIOLENCE WHEN DRUG-TRADE BOOM GOES BUST

EDMONTON - The boom means times are good in Edmonton's drug trade
too, with an unprecedented level of co-operation among the major
players to meet strong demand, says the city police officer
overseeing gang investigations.

But when the economy skids, he predicts an outbreak of the public
violence Edmonton experienced last decade.

"With Edmonton's affluence, you're seeing a high level of
co-operation between organized crime groups," Staff Sgt. Kevin Galvin
on Wednesday told the Edmonton Police Commission. Galvin leads the
police co-ordinated crime section, which includes hate crimes, gang
and undercover operations.

He said there is so much money to be made that drug gangs are now
asking each other to front each other drugs when they run out of
inventory. Such co-operation was unheard of 20 years ago.

Organized criminals know that they will get repaid quickly because of
the area's high demand for drugs. "A lot of people flood the area,
they have a lot of money, they aren't thinking at the moment to get
RSPs and pay off the mortgage. This is about immediate gratification."

Current incidents of gang-related violence are mostly cases of
internal discipline with incidents of random violence against
unsuspecting people being rare, he said. But when demand for drugs
slows, dealers will find themselves owing large debts to two or three
key criminal groups.

"The key crime brokers have reputations to keep and they'll keep it."

Currently, the gangs are trying to keep violence as quiet and private
as possible, but Galvin predicts a return to the late 1990s when
high-profile public drive-by shootings were common in Edmonton.

In the same presentation, drug investigator Staff Sgt. Darcy Strang
told the commission that drug addiction is the root cause of many
other crimes in Edmonton including robbery, fraud, prostitution,
homicide and assaults.