YOUTH GANG 'EPIDEMIC' PREDICTED

Almost Half Of Gang Members Linked To Organized Crime, Federal Report Says

Almost half of Canada's 6,760 youth gang members work for or with
established organized crime groups in drug trafficking, extortion,
prostitution, car theft and other criminal enterprises, according to the
country's first-ever report on youth gang activity.

The report, which was commissioned by the federal Solicitor-General and
obtained by the National Post, warns that Canada's youth gang problem
appears to be increasing and could reach the epidemic levels seen in the
United States if it is not dealt with.

"Survey results show that a majority of law-enforcement officials believe
that the youth gang problem is going to get worse in Canada," the report said.

"Policy makers and community leaders in Canada may wish to pay attention to
the U.S. experience, which confirms that once youth gangs become
established within communities, they can rapidly proliferate."

Canada's youth gang population (defined as a group of people younger than
21 that can fairly be classed as a "gang") is small compared to the United
States' more than 700,000-member gang population, which increased
seven-fold between 1980 and 2000.

Policing experts, however, say Canadian crime trends usually follow about a
decade behind those of the United States.

"Toronto reminds me of L.A. 15 years ago," Detective Tony Moreno, a gang
expert with the Los Angeles Police Department, said in a recent interview
in Toronto.

Det. Moreno, whose career as a gang cop formed the basis of Sean Penn's
character in the movie Colors, has given gang seminars to police across
Canada and his trained eye has watched the problem grow steadily.

"The baddest gang member in Ottawa is as bad as any criminal in L.A. Ottawa
just may not have as many of them," he said. "It's just like the worst
criminal in Toronto or in Winnipeg is as bad as the worst criminal in New
York or Chicago. It just hasn't reached that level yet."

Investigator Hector Alecia, a gang cop with the New York State Police, said
California authorities warned his force in 1996 that California gangs were
migrating north.

"We were like, 'Yeah, yeah.' We knew it was coming but we never really paid
attention to it. All of a sudden, we were absorbed by it," he said.

Already, 44% of Canadian youth gangs are believed to have links to
aboriginal and Asian organized crime groups and Outlaw biker gangs, the
report found.

The survey was prepared by Toronto-based gang consultant Michael
Chettleburgh, head of Astwood Strategy Corp. and Fraudbox Inc., a corporate
fraud consulting firm. The results were compiled from 283 responding police
agencies across the country.

Because the 2002 Canadian Police Survey on Youth Gangs is the first of its
kind, it does not note any increases in activity or membership. However,
the survey is modeled on an annual U.S. study that law enforcement has
credited with helping track the problem.

The Canadian study indicates that while Ontario was among the latest to
report the onset of youth gang activity -- Surrey, B.C., in 1975, was the
first municipality to report gang activity -- it is now among the busiest,
with 216 youth gangs and 3,320 gang members.

Saskatchewan, with 935 members in 22 gangs, had the highest concentration
of youth gang members in Canada, with one per 100,000 people. Ninety-six
per cent of those were aboriginal youths, the report found.

More than one-third of British Columbian youth gang members were Asian.
Black youths made up more than a third of gang members in Ontario and half
in Quebec. In Nova Scotia, gang membership was split roughly between black
and white youths.

In a nod to Canada's racial diversity, it found more than one-third of the
country's youth gangs are of mixed ethnicity. Provincially, 51% of
Ontario's gangs are of mixed race, followed by 46% in British Columbia.

"It's less stereotypical," a knowledgeable gang source said. "You could
have a white kid as a member of the Crips."

Police have also found increased recruitment of female members in the
predominately male world of street gangs. This is especially true in B.C.,
where females make up 12% of the province's gang population, as well as
Manitoba (10%) and Saskatchewan (9%)

The findings suggest police across the country may not be fully prepared to
cope with the gang problem, especially outside of big cities. Although
almost half of the responding police agencies use a computerized gang
intelligence database to track activity, only 14% have a specialized gang
unit or dedicated officers to visit schools, talk to troubled kids or
patrol known gang hangouts.

Constable Todd Cox, a gang officer in Windsor, Ont., said
intelligence-sharing -- in the form of a Canada-wide or province-wide
database -- is increasingly important in the fight against youth gangs.

"If you have a gang member in Windsor and you can pull up a database that
says this person is known in Toronto, you have to start looking at why
they're in Windsor," he said.

A spokesman with Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada declined
to comment on the report until it is officially released.