CALGARY'S DEADLY BUSINESS OF GANGS & DRUGS

Gang Violence Has Claimed The Lives Of Six Calgary Asian Men Since January

The Shaken Drink Room was jammed with people when a group of armed men
burst in and opened fire shortly after midnight last Feb. 26.

The target of their murderous wrath was John Pheng -- a 22-year-old Calgary
man known for his gangland ties.

Amidst panic and screaming, bullets were sprayed inside the bar, then
outside on 17th Avenue.

Bullets pierced parked vehicles -- some with people sitting in them.
Miraculously, no innocents were hurt.

Pheng -- who served time in jail in 2003 for hitting a man over the head
with a baseball bat -- died.

It was not the first time in 2005 that death stalked Calgary's club scene.

On Jan. 29, a group of men, armed with knives and dressed in black, entered
the southwest Warehouse nightclub and killed Long Dinh, 33.

Meanwhile, periodic shootings rattled the city, and continue to do so.
Until recently, police -- more than once -- denied they were linked to gangs.

In January, Calgary police Deputy Chief Dale Burn said there was no
evidence the shootings marked the beginning of a battle between two gangs.

"There's been no indication these are gang-related," said Burn.

But the war had already begun.

Gang-style murder found a new venue in Calgary on May 20. This time, the
assailant didn't strike under the cover of darkness.

Peter Huynh, 19, sat at the pumps in his Honda Civic, as customers popped
in and out of the Forest Lawn Turbo station at 8th Avenue and 44 Street
S.E. for gas and groceries.

It was about 7 p.m. A masked man marched up and pumped five bullets into
Huynh at close range. The murderer, in his 20s, ran up the street, jumped
into a car and drove away.

Huynh died during surgery at Foothills hospital.

On June 4, gang violence struck again. This time, the tragic waste of life
was a case of mistaken identity.

Sophorn Kim, 21, a passenger in a Honda CRV was shot multiple times near
the Max Bell Arena.

Kim, who was not a gang member, died in Foothills Hospital.

History repeated itself in a sinister way at a northeast gas station on July 9.

Huynh's cousin Chuong (David) Tran, 21, and Dat Le, 22, were in an SUV when
a hooded gunman approached at about 5 p.m.

Both Tran and Le -- who had survived being shot on March 19 -- were gang
members with drug convictions.

As people milled about, the gunman fired shots from a semi-automatic weapon
that drained the life out of his targets, then fled in a minivan.

All six 2005 murders are unsolved.

Why gang members -- who pack powerful weapons -- are going at one another
with a vengeance depends on whom one talks to.

Some speculate pure hatred fuels the violence between two gangs -- FOB
(Fresh Off The Boat) and FK (Fresh Off The Boat Killers).

Others suggest these drug-dealing players are engaged in a turf war over
customers.

When cornered, these cocky gang members profess a callous disregard to
police about their actions.

At the same time, police and community members recognize some are
frightened, lost souls who are puppets in schemes -- Dial-A-Dope tops the
list -- for sophisticated criminals.

One thing is sure -- people who have information are reluctant to finger
the culprits who bully them and kill their friends and sons.

Calgary police Chief Jack Beaton has expressed frustration over a code of
silence -- from the community and witnesses -- that hampers investigations.

However, police have their own code of silence in that they refuse to
acknowledge by name the gangs operating in Calgary, claiming the groups
feed off notoriety.

The latest violence stems from a feud between the FOB and the FK, both with
core members of Asian males in their teens and 20s.

Some members of the public insist at least one other gang originating from
Edmonton -- the Crazy Dragons, whose membership includes Caucasian males --
adds to the friction.

Beaton says police are working hard to "suppress, disrupt and dismantle"
gangs in Calgary.

Despite little information , they "won't give up.

"If we can't get them on shootings, we'll get them for every little thing.
We know who they are," the chief said on May 28.

Between Feb. 26 and July 22, police made 31 arrests and laid more than 175
charges relating to gang activity.

Those charges are diverse -- including possession of an explosive
substance, possession of weapons, forged credit cards and trafficking
marijuana.

During various investigations, police have seized a chilling arsenal from
gang members and associates, including rifles, shotguns, handguns, a
silencer for a handgun, brass knuckles, flashbang grenades and machetes.

Beaton's claim that police know who the players are is based on detailed
files they have on gang members and those associated with FOB and FK.

Police emphasize that the gangs comprise members from all ethnic groups.

However, Tony Lee, a criminal intelligence analyst with Toronto police,
notes police services are paralysed by a fear of being accused of profiling
if they zero in on any ethnic group. But they have to get over it, he says.
"I'm Asian. So I can say it."

The fact is, of late, it is the blood of young Asian males spilling on
Calgary streets.

Det. Scott Hobbs, a Calgary police officer in the criminal intelligence
unit, a joint forces squad made up of CPS, RCMP and Canada Customs
investigators, has been tracking Asian criminals for seven years.

"My function is to chart, monitor and determine criminal activity within
organized crime perimeters. I specifically look at Asians," Hobbs says.

"I deal with criminal youth, street gangs and organized criminals."

Calgary has the third-largest Asian population in Canada -- more than
180,000 people.

Hobbs was tasked with finding out the percentage of

violent crimes committed by persons from Asia. "I was able to determine
that of all the violent crimes committed over a period of one year,
six-per-cent (about 10,800 people) were committed by Orientals," he said.

Less than .5 per cent of that can be attributed to the current violence
Calgary is experiencing, he said.

However, the level of that violence is spectacular. As well, the Asian
community says many crimes go unreported.

Not all criminals are involved in gang activity. But Hobbs deals with many
who are.

"I spend hours with these guys. This isn't a chance meeting on the street.
We spend a considerable amount of energy trying to figure out why these
guys are in those positions," he says. "When you talk to these little
gangsters and they're saying, 'I'm going to do this.' Well, what about the
laws? 'I don't care about the laws.'

"So you lock them up, you put them away and, because of the way our legal
system works, they're released back into society."

They know the difference between wrong and right on society's terms, Hobbs
says.

"They make that conscious decision to become involved in that particular
activity. They have a gang attitude. I find it frustrating. When a guy says
to me, 'If I can't beat that guy up, I'm gonna have four or five of my
friends come over,' they're proud of it."

That nasty attitude, coupled with the illegal business they conduct and
weapons they pack, can be deadly when they set out to commit a crime.

"They don't care who they hurt, they don't care who they challenge," says
Hobbs.

He asks them if they consider the ramifications of their acts on other
people. The standard answer is a flippant, "Whatever it takes to win."

Hobbs says the current bout of violence is inspired by hatred between a
group of former friends now at war.

He echoes a worry expressed by many -- Calgary streets may be littered with
more bodies.

"I would think that the people that still don't like each other are in
danger. Do we tell them that they're probably in danger? Yes, we do. They
shrug their shoulders. I think they're very afraid, but they continue to be
involved with that group of people."

At the helm of that group are organized criminals entrenched in Calgary.

"Most of the organized crime people in Calgary get along. They get along
because they can make more money that way," says Hobbs.

"These kids don't respect that upper group of people."

But they have embraced a traditional practice.

"It has to do a lot with faith, with Quaxi (reciprocal agreement). It means
if I do a favour for you, you will do a favour for me, because if you
don't, you will lose face," said Hobbs.

Experts say Calgary's gang activity is motivated by illegal drugs and the
lure of promised profits -- sometimes hundreds of dollars a day.

Calgary's FOB and FK -- entrenched in the grow op and Dial-A-Dope business
- -- are no exception.

Dial-A-Dope -- order by cellphone with the option of pickup or delivery --
swirls primarily around crack cocaine and cocaine.

"The kids that are doing this are victims -- sucked in by the guys that
think they are expendable," says Sgt. Gavin Walker of the Calgary police
gang enforcement team.

In many cases, it is a matter of "indentured servitude," says Walker. "Some
of them work 12-hour days for a place to sleep, gas in the car and a bowl
of soup.

"If you lose drugs, you must work off the debt, or do something to work off
the debt."

And, because of "the culture of fear," arming themselves with weapons is
part of the job description.

"They have a huge number of repeat customers because of the addictive
issues," says Walker. "Users are just like all addictions. It crosses every
socio-economic group you can imagine."

"Blame the people who buy the stuff," says Robert Gordon, a gang expert and
director of the school of criminology at Simon Fraser University in
Burnaby, B.C.

"A lot of people who get upset about the violence are the very people who
go and buy the commodity."

Two major criminal business organizations are involved in the drug trade
operating in Calgary, he says.

"What they're doing is having wars over a market share. This is a mirror of
what's going on in Vancouver and a whole bunch of other Canadian cities."

The role of gang members is to retail drugs and provide protection to those
who are doing it," Gordon says.

"And also to engage in extra-legal dispute resolution -- where they pop
each other off."

Though it is heating up again, in the mid-to-late 1990s, the law "shut
down" street gang activity in Vancouver.

"The principals were arrested, charged and convicted and ended up residing
in one of Her Majesty's establishments -- where they still are, cooling
their heels," Gordon says.

Success stemmed from all of the law enforcement agencies "singing from the
same hymn book," he says.

"Until that happens, the situation will not change. . . . One of the
primary strategies is to go after the kingpins -- target and aggressively
pursue them -- and not to worry so much about rounding up groups of kids."

Violence runs in cycles.

This bout will continue "until police shut down one of those criminal
organizations, or dramatically disrupt the industry," predicts Gordon.

"I don't know that they're not paying attention. They don't know what to
do," he says.

In the early '90s, Calgary police knew what to do and did it well, via the
anti-gang CRASH (Community Response Against Street Hoodlums) unit.

CRASH targeted gang members -- both local and those who habitually rolled
into the city, from across Canada and the United States.

Calgary police did not allow them to remain anonymous in the crowd, says
retired deputy chief Peter Copple, then CRASH staff sergeant.

"The bad guy does not like to be centred out. So when he's sitting in a
restaurant and the police come over and say, 'Hi. How are you? Welcome to
Calgary. We just wanted you to know we know you're here -- and we're here.
W e'd like to have a safe city. Thank you very much for your time.' And
then we'd walk away."

A fearful Asian community was at the mercy of gangs like the Young Dragons,
Rude Boys and Kung Lok.

"One of the big offences was what they called banquet extortions where the
gang would go into a restaurant, eat the best of everything and then walk
out and not pay," says Copple.

If business people demanded payment, they would trash the place.

Police concentrated on building up a trust with the community. It reached
the point where victims agreed to go to court to testify.

"Initially, all the gang members would be sitting in court staring at the
victim, who was automatically intimidated by that tactic," says Copple.

Police countered this by walking into the courtroom and sitting down beside
the gangsters "so victims wouldn't have to be intimidated."

Resource issues and a definite ebbing of gang activity led to the
disbandment of the CRASH unit in 1993.

Twelve years later, Calgary police face a "significant problem" again.

"You can clean up the garden, but if you don't keep weeding it, it's going
to be full of thorns all over again," says Copple.

"I really think that's part of it. It doesn't happen overnight.

"Knowing some of the people working on this, they are dedicated,
outstanding officers who really have the community's interest at heart.

"Society changes, technology changes. People change. Therefore, what was
done in the past, take the good and apply it to today and build upon that,"
says Copple.

Charges laid against city gangs

C.C = Criminal Code charges

C.DSA = Controlled Drugs and Substances Act charges

Charges Laid from Feb. 26 to July 22, 2005 TEU/Gang

Possession of Explosive Substance 1 C.C.

Hazardous Storage of Firearm 21 C.C.

Possession of Weapon 10 C.C.

Carry Concealed Weapon 1 C.C.

Unauthorized Firearm 20 C.C.

Possess Restricted Weapon 21 C.C.

Knowledge of Unauthorized Firearm Possession 6 C.C.

Firearm in Motor Vehicle 7 C.C.

Prohibited/Restricted Firearm 16 C.C.

Possess Weapon Obtained by Crime 1 C.C

Possess Weapon/Firearm Contrary to Prohibition 3 C.C

Obstruct a Peace Officer 1 C.C

Breach of Conditions 15 C.C

Dangerous Driving 1 C.C.

Forged Credit Card 3 C .C.

Proceeds of Crime 7 C.C.

Possession Stolen Property Over 2 C.C

Possession Stolen Property Under 2 C.C.

Fraud 7 C.C.

Possession Marijuana 10 C.DSA

Trafficking Marijuana 1 C.DSA

Trafficking Cocaine 6 C.DSA

Food and Drugs Act 2

Total 172

Firearms seized :

- - 1 Sterling SAR 80 rifle

- - 1 Smith & Wesson 30-06 rifle

- - 1 rifle, make unknown

- - 2 shotguns

- - 1 Colt 1911 .45 pistol

- - 1 Smith & Wesson .357 revolver

- - 1 .380 handgun, make unknown

- - 1 Ruger handgun

- - 2 Glock handguns

- - 1 Smith and Wesson 9 mm

- - 1 Sig Saur P228 handgun

Misc. weapons:

- - 1 Silencer for handgun

- - 36 canisters of CS gas

- - 1 set brass knuckles

- - 6 AR-15 magazines

- - 3 flashbang grenades

- - 1 collapsible baton

- - Numerous machetes