STREET GANGS NOT AT WAR, COPS SAY

Fight Against This Type Of Criminal Activity Is Top Priority, Police
Say At Briefing

Street-gang activity in the city remains under control even though
gang-related killings rose by more than double last year, Montreal
police say.

There were 12 gang-related slayings on Montreal Island last year, up
from five in 2005. Despite that increase, however, the gang situation
in the city is "fairly stable," Mario Plante, the top city cop in
charge of fighting street gangs, told reporters at a briefing yesterday.

Attempted murders involving gang members fell to 42 last year from 58
in 2005, he added.

Police are "sparing no efforts" to infiltrate and disarm the city's
street gangs, said Plante, assistant director for special squads at
the force.

"Citizens should continue to feel secure," he said, while encouraging
the public to call in gang-related tips anonymously to Info-Crime.

The fight against street gangs remains the police department's top
priority, Plante said.

So far in 2007, six of the seven homicides recorded on the island have
been classified as gang-related.

These six involved internal settlings of accounts, however - personal
clashes or quarrels over drug deals, Plante said.

All victims and suspects were gang-affiliated in one way or another,
he added.

Plante said police have "no indication whatsoever" that an expected
exodus of motorcycle-gang leaders out of prisons this year and in 2008
could trigger a turf war between the city's better-established street
gangs and older-style biker gangs over control of prostitution and the
illegal drug trade.

Montreal Island is host to about 20 established street gangs, he said,
with a total of 350 to 500 members.

Many of these groups are led by longtime gang members in their
30s.

Street-gang violence remains more widespread in the cities of
Vancouver and Toronto, Plante said.

To finance enforcement efforts and to increase emphasis on prevention
programs in schools and neighbourhoods, Montreal police recently asked
Quebec's Public Security Department for more money to fight the city's
street gangs, Plante said.

He refused to say how much money was sought, or over what
period.

The provincial government earmarked $6 million in September for the
Montreal anti-gang effort, with spending of $2 million annually over
the following three years.

Lack of resources isn't hindering police in enforcing the law on gangs
in Montreal, Plante said. "Nothing has been put on ice."

Montreal police made 1,529 gang-related arrests in 2006, about 300 of
those involving minors, he said.

They also executed 129 gang-related search warrants on homes,
businesses or vehicles, seizing drugs, cash and 158 firearms.

The number of cases of assault with a weapon that were related to
street gangs rose to 85 last year from 80 in 2005, Plante said.

A gang-activities update provided by the force in mid-December 2005
pegged the number of gang-related arrests to that point of the year at
2,180 - 651 arrests higher than the full-year 2006 figure.

The number of search warrants executed to that point of 2005 was 168.
That's 39 more than for all of 2006.

The police force would not provide comparative full-year figures for
2005 and 2004, including those detailing seizures of firearms, unless
the newspaper filed an access-to-information request, said Constable
Laurent Gingras, a media-relations official.

Calls to the access office weren't returned.