RCMP TO TAKE OVER OPERATION OF ORGANIZED-CRIME UNIT

The province's Organized Crime Agency is to be moved to the RCMP, giving
B.C. millions of extra dollars to use in the fight against organized crime,
Solicitor General Rich Coleman said Friday.

The OCA, formed in 1999 in a climate of growing concern about organized
crime, currently has members seconded from municipal police forces and the
RCMP. Its budget of more than $13 million is funded entirely by the province.

On April 1 the unit will be integrated with the RCMP, meaning the federal
government will pick up 30 per cent of the budget.

That will free up about $4 million which will be pumped directly into more
organized-crime investigations, Coleman said in an interview.

"The agency as it sits today will disappear and become the integrated
organized crime unit. It will be integrated with the serious-crime teams of
the major police departments."

However, members of the unit will still specialize in organized crime,
Coleman said. The investigation teams will be "fluid" and able to move to
different locations in the province as needed, he said.

The unit now is made up of 38 police officers seconded from municipal
forces, 25 from the provincial RCMP and 20 from the federal RCMP.

The change will not prevent municipal police officers from being able to
serve on the team, Coleman said.

In B.C. organized crime is involved in drugs, money-laundering, the gun
trade and the sex trade. Hell's Angels are the "biggest and the worst"
organized crime group, but Asian gangs, Indo-Canadian gangs and a small
Russian gang component are also are active in the province, he said.

"The best way to describe it is that, in B.C., the franchise is owned by
the Hell's Angels and the other groups feed into their business and
sometimes compete -- and then there are unpleasant results."

The number of people involved in organized crime in the province is
probably in the hundreds, but thousands of people are affected by it, he said.

People with grow-ops are part of the organized-crime network because the
distribution and marketing system is run by organized-crime groups and
anyone who freelances is in trouble, he said.

About 80 per cent of marijuana grown in B.C. goes to the United States
where it is traded kilo for kilo for cocaine, the solicitor general said.

A kilo of marijuana leaving a grow-op goes for $350 to $450 a kilo, but
sells for $7,000 a kilo in Los Angeles.

The Organized Crime Agency Web site shows fewer than 20 news releases
announcing arrests or charges over the last four years. However, Coleman
said the unit often provides intelligence that results in arrests by other
departments.

The mandate of the agency is the disruption and suppression of organized
crime and the partnership with the RCMP will help, said David Douglas, the
agency's chief officer.

"Innovative new partnerships are necessary if we are going to be properly
equipped to fight organized crime both now and in the future," said Douglas.