DRUG MONEY AT CENTRE OF GANG VIOLENCE

Asian crime groups a threat to safety: report

Greed and infighting between members of a large Asian street gang over
drug money splintered the group, leading to a spate of Calgary
shootings, stabbings and at least two murders in the past 13 months.

The revelation comes on the heels of a Criminal Intelligence Service
Alberta report stating

21 Asian organized crime groups remain the most serious threat to the
province's safety, more so than Eastern European criminals or the
Hells Angels, whose Alberta membership is at an all-time low.

"It always comes down to money, and -- this is no secret -- in any
organization there's a breakdown on how the money flows through that
organization," said acting Insp. Ken Marchant of the Calgary police
organized crime control section. "These are people in the business of
making money, whether be it drugs, weapons.

"Everybody wants to move their product, and that's where you get the
violence. A number of components in that relationship broke down and
that created a struggle over a number of organized crime activities in
Calgary."

Next Monday, one of the alleged ringleaders of the rival gang,
Nicholas Chan, is scheduled to appear in provincial court for a
preliminary hearing on nearly a dozen charges, including directing a
criminal organization.

Chan and nearly 100 others were swept up in a massive police operation
in June, the culmination of six-month investigation into local
organized crime.

Rival groups, made up of mainly Asians, have since gone
underground.

And while the city was plagued with overt violence by street gang
members, police intelligence indicates other organized crime groups
are running lucrative underground businesses without drawing attention.

Eastern European organized crime groups, including Russians and
Romanians, operate in the city and across the province.

"Any of the countries in the former Soviet Union, in particular
Russia, there's a significant number of people involved in organized
crime," said CISA director Insp. Ian Cameron. "The more successful
they become in their endeavours, the more underground they become."

It's unlikely any of the five Eastern European organized crime groups
in Alberta will carry out a drive-by shooting, Cameron said.

Although they can be violent in their homeland, European gangsters
prefer to remain under the radar here, he said.

In September, police busted a group of transient Romanians who
targeted drive-through bank machines, altering some to capture
customer information.

The scheme was thwarted before the men could get any
cash.

Alberta authorities in 2001 were also able to make a dent in the
activities of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang. Marchant said several
members are still in jail.

The group, which has three chapters in the province, is at its lowest
membership, says the CISA report.

Although only 39 fully patched Angels are in Alberta -- mainly running
marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine -- police don't believe they
are any less of a threat.

"Just because intelligence appears that (their) numbers are going down
doesn't mean they're not operating at a level that doesn't bring
attention to themselves," said Marchant.

To avoid the glare, the crime groups are moving to bedroom
communities, such as Chestermere, the report says.

Criminologist John Manzo said when criminals can no longer carry on
their activity in the city, smaller markets can prove quite lucrative.

"Density is very good for crime control," said Manzo, a professor at
the University of Calgary.

Manzo said Calgary does not suffer from a gang problem when compared
with other similar cities in North America.

Regardless, police in Alberta will continue to combine efforts to
tackle organized crime, said Cameron.

The Integrated Response to Organized Crime Unit, run by Calgary and
Edmonton police as well as the RCMP, was established earlier this year.

"There is a dedication amongst all police services in the province
that we don't drop the ball on the other crime groups," said Cameron.