'ONCE GANGS ARE HERE, IT'S TOO LATE'

Dire Warnings: Central American Crimefighters Learn From, Share Intel
With B.C. Officers

A prominent Guatemala City prosecutor who has seen hundreds of people
killed in gang violence has a dire warning for Canadian police.

"Don't wait for them to come before you fight them," Alvaro Matus said
through a translator. "Once these gangs are here, it's too late. They
will reproduce and grow and become out of control."

Matus was among 25 prosecutors and investigators from Central America
and Mexico who graduated Friday from a five-week course at the RCMP's
Pacific Region Training Centre in Chilliwack.

Top crime fighters in their home countries, the prosecutors came to
Canada to learn how to manage a major criminal case and secure
convictions.

"Our investigators are second to none," said Chief Supt. Bill
Dingwall, head of the RCMP training centre. "Because of the
sophistication of our techniques and the sophistication of our
training, we are sought out as a place to come and learn."

But the course's benefits weren't limited to the students.

Members of B.C.'s Integrated Gang Task Force also attended the course
to learn more about Central American organized crime groups, including
MS-13 and 18th Street -- two vicious street gangs that already have a
small local presence.

"[The prosecutors] experience more in a month than most of us may
experience in a career," said Supt. John Robin, head of B.C.'s
Integrated Gang Task Force. "We're not seeing [Central American gangs]
to the point that they're seeing them in the United States. The U.S.
has a huge issue with MS-13 and with 18th Street."

But Robin said gang members have started to move into Canada and could
have links with more established local gangs involved in the drug trade.

"One of the goals of this course is to build partnerships with the
investigators down in Central America. If we can improve their
investigative capacity, it's going to benefit us as well," he said.

Coming from countries where the warring gangs protect their territory
with brutal violence, the prosecutors themselves said they work in
constant fear of their lives.

"Every time we go out on a job, we commit our lives to God," said
Ricardo Barrientos, a Honduran prosecutor.

"Every moment we're afraid we could be killed," said Juan Ramirez, a
police investigator from El Salvador. "If a gang member murders a
policeman, he gets a higher status in the gang."

The MS-13 gang has about 12,000 members in El Salvador, while the
rival 18th Street gang has about 8,000 members. The gangs are divided
into cells and control different neighbourhoods. Graffiti and tattoos
mark the groups' territory and members.

In 2005, El Salvador registered 55.5 murders per 100,000 inhabitants.
In 2004, there were 11,236 slayings in Guatemala, but only 48 homicide
trials.

The five-week course in Chilliwack is part of a training commitment by
Canada to help build a better Central American justice system.