NUMBER OF CRIMINAL GROUPS GROWING

The number of organized crime groups in B.C. grew for the third year
in a row in 2006 -- to 124, up from 108 identified the previous year,
says a 2006 RCMP report obtained by The Vancouver Sun.

The 2006 Integrated Threat Assessment on Organized Crime says that
police successfully disbanded 19 of the groups operating in 2005, but
another 35 organized crime groups started up.

"The increase was also manifested in the number of mid-to-low-level
criminal organizations identified, the growth in which accounted for
nearly all the annual change overall," the report says.

The graph in the report looks alarming, starting in 2003 with just 52
groups and rising in each of the last three years. But the report
also says better record-keeping and analysis of crime groups accounts
for some of the increase.

In terms of successes, five crime groups were disrupted last year
through "successful enforcement."

Ten groups disbanded or disappeared from police radar and are no
longer considered a criminal threat. The rest were rolled into larger
crime groups, the report says.

"An additional ten groups saw a decline in assessed threat due to
enforcement actions against the group or its associates," the report
says. "Thus law enforcement actions yielded positive results in terms
of disruption against 15 of 108 organized crime groups -- that is 14
per cent -- over the past year."

And as last year, independent crime groups and outlaw motorcycle
gangs -- particularly the Hells Angels -- are at the top of the pack
in terms of sophistication and criminal involvement.

"The remaining profile of organized crime in the province is
comprised of Asian-based organized crime, Indo-Canadian organized
crime, Eastern European and various other smaller categories."

Most of the new groups formed were trying to cash in on the lucrative
drug trade, particularly marijuana and crystal meth.

"In light of the continuing trend in synthetic drug production and
trafficking and as regards to the well-known situation regarding
marijuana cultivation, it is not surprising that the typical core
activity of the independent and OMG-associated criminal organizations
newly added in 2006 is that of drug-trafficking and drug production,
with most of these groups scoring in the middle range of known
criminal organizations in the province," the report says.

Whole sections of the 400-plus page document were blanked out for
security reasons.

Of the so-called independent groups, a number of them work in concert
with biker gangs, the report says, while others are "truly independent."

The researchers noted that pot cultivation appears to have plateaued,
"remaining comfortably the biggest single criminal revenue generator
in B.C./Yukon and a sizeable industry in the region in its own right.
Reported grow operations are levelling off, but the average number of
plants is consistently increasing," the report says.

"Methamphetamine and other synthetic drugs continue to expand as an
enforcement challenge and a social problem."