BOOM LURES GANGS: REPORT

Alberta Wealth Fuels Growth Of Crime Groups

Sophisticated organized crime groups are putting down deeper roots
and entering several illegal -- and legal -- businesses to capitalize
on Alberta's booming economy, the province's law enforcement agencies
say in an intelligence report released Wednesday.

Outlaw biker gangs are establishing puppet clubs to expand their
influence over the drug trade throughout the province while two
Calgary street gangs, FOB and FK, continue to wage a bloody feud for
power and prestige that has already claimed at least four lives since 2002.

Amid the violence and the shifting alliances documented by the
Criminal Intelligence Service Alberta in its annual report, there is
also new evidence a large Asian crime syndicate in Calgary has
quietly spread its tentacles into many illegal rackets while
resisting attempts by police to shut them down.

"Another Asian-based organized crime group has been a significant
enforcement priority, having connections to virtually every organized
crime group in the Calgary area," the report says. "A large number of
legitimate holdings facilitate the laundering of money from several
diverse activities such as marihuana cultivation, distribution and
exportation, loan sharking, methamphetamine production and distribution."

That intelligence, however, hasn't been enough for police to make any
significant arrests.

"The organization has been targeted a number of times but has not
been disrupted as the leaders have insulated themselves well from law
enforcement," the report says.

Creating distance between the major players and their criminal
activities is a long-standing tactic used by outlaw motorcycle gangs,
and Criminal Intelligence Service Alberta says the province's
dominant group -- the Hells Angels -- continues to do just that by
creating puppet clubs such as Iron Steed and Deaths Hand.

The core membership in Alberta's three Hells Angels chapters,
meanwhile, remains steady at about 60.

In the north, CISA says Hells Angels from B.C. "subsidize" a criminal
group in Grande Prairie, while their Alberta counterparts back drug
traffickers in Fort McMurray.

There is also evidence an Edmonton-based Asian gang, the Crazy
Dragons, has been involved in Calgary's FOB-FK feud and is aligning
itself with aboriginal gangs to get drugs into reserve communities.

"Drugs are the engine that drives that machine as far as organized
crime goes," said Staff Sgt. Wes Elliott of the RCMP's drug section in Calgary.

Crack cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine are the three dominant
street drugs changing hands in the province.

The Hells Angels' historical dominance of the crystal meth trade
remains unchanged, according to CISA, but a "traditional organized
crime group" in Calgary is responsible for selling large amounts of
cocaine and other drugs to other gangs.

"The group is (also) believed to be involved in illegal gaming,
prostitution, loan-sharking, frauds and the fencing of stolen
property," CISA says.

The agency doesn't specify whether the group is an established Mafia
family, but an author of several books on the Italian mob said
Alberta's wealth is a powerful lure.

Antonio Nicaso wrote in his book Bloodlines that a Toronto-based
Mafia family considered buying Calgary nightclubs about five years
ago as a way to launder money and establish a presence here.

"That's the trend: everybody is looking at Alberta for possible
investment," Nicaso said Wednesday.

Organized crime groups have successfully expanded in part because of
their ability to co-operate and move beyond borders, while police
have been slower to do the same thing, Nicaso said.

"Police promise to increase the level of co-operation, but,
practically, they are doing very little," he said.

Provincial officials, however, point to several joint-forces
operations and integrated units that have seized significant amounts of drugs.

The Southern Alberta Marijuana Investigative Team -- made up of
Calgary police and RCMP members -- seized nearly 60,000 marijuana
plants worth an estimated $68 million last year.

Solicitor General Harvey Cenaiko said the province plans to create
new joint initiatives to complement SAMIT and the Integrated Response
to Organized Crime.

Cenaiko's department recently proposed the formation of a
provincewide squad of drug investigators, in response to a government
task force seeking strategies to fight crystal meth.

The government added 60 members to IROC in 2005, and Cenaiko said he
envisions doubling that number with the creation of the drug squad.

"It'll have a tremendous impact," he said.