POLICE REVEAL EXTENT OF ORGANIZED CRIME'S LONG REACH

"It's a national day for informing the public about the damage and
dangers of organized crime throughout Canada," says Steven Chabot,
assistant director-general of the Surete du Quebec and vice-president
of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police.

Organized crime has its tentacles in more aspects of society than the
average person thinks, says the man in charge of investigating it at
the provincial level.

To help Canadians understand the size of the problem, police forces
across the country launched a series of awareness programs today as
part of the inaugural National Organized Crime Prevention Day.

"It's a national day for informing the public about the damage and
dangers of organized crime throughout Canada," said Steven Chabot,
assistant director-general of the Surete du Quebec and vice-president
of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police.

"We want to inform the public, but we also want to inform governments
and decision-makers of the scope and the dangers of organized crime."

The subject is one that Quebecers are unfortunately well aware of,
Chabot said in an interview with The Gazette.

"But the problem is in certain (other) areas of Canada where they are
trying to tackle organized crime and it doesn't draw the public's
attention," he said.

Profits from criminal activities like drug trafficking are
increasingly being funnelled into legitimate businesses. Last month,
the RCMP revealed it suspects some privately owned automated teller
machines are being used to launder money. Chabot said organized crime
groups are also involved in publicly traded companies.

"They've just got better and better at putting their dirty money into
the legal economy. We'll find them in areas now that we'd never think
we'd find them."

Chabot mentioned the construction industry as an example and hinted
there will be developments soon, "and people are going to realize how
far it is getting."

For its part in National Organized Crime Prevention Day, the Surete du
Quebec highlighted a new program that targets marijuana grow-ops in
their early stages. The SQ already has Operation Cisaille, a
high-profile program that annually targets marijuana crops at harvest
time.

"What we're trying to do now is to have an early warning setup to
detect plants in crops ... to catch them earlier rather than at the
end of the season," Chabot said.

Operation Cisaille continues to produce results. Last year, the SQ
seized more than 800,000 plants.

"But what we're seizing isn't creating a shortage on the streets," he
acknowledged.

But biker gangs like the Hells Angels remain the highest priority for
organized crime investigations in Quebec.

Despite three major roundups of members of the Hells Angels since
2001, the gang is still prevalent in the province. Like most
organized crime groups operating at high levels, the Hells Angels know
the value of evolving.

"What they did do following Springtime 2001 (the roundup of Hells
Angels and their underlings) is they stopped fighting for drug and
prostitution territories at the street level. They've given up those
territories, but they are still supplying the drugs that are there,"
Chabot said.

"If I look at the picture in Quebec, the drug market is still mostly
controlled by the Hells Angels. ...They've got farther away from it
and they are having other people do it for them.

"But we're going to get at them anyhow."