GANGS IN OUR MIDST

A new national report on organized crime has identified 10 street
gangs in Nova Scotia, although police in Halifax say groups here
aren't as organized as their counterparts elsewhere.

The annual report by Criminal Intelligence Service Canada highlighted
street gangs and said in the Atlantic region, gangs are involved in
street-level drug trafficking and prostitution, with rare use of guns
and knives in crime.

In other urban centres, such as Toronto and Montreal, violent clashes
are more frequent and involve guns, the report said.

Halifax Regional Police spokesman Const. Jeff Carr said they have
identified six to eight street gangs around metro, although the shape
of a gang in Halifax is usually looser than in other cities.

While they may give themselves names and wear matching colours, gangs
often lack specific leaders, he said.

"They're not highly structured, they're not highly organized," Carr
said.

They are generally groups of young adults who hang around together
based on neighbourhoods, he said.

"They just seem more inclined to violence than they did, say, 20, 30
years ago," Carr said. "They're involved in low-end arrests such as
thefts, possession of drugs, minor assaults, low-level drug dealing."

Track activities

Carr said Halifax police have an officer who regularly tracks the
activities of those groups.

The CISC report identified street gangs as a major part of organized
crime issues in Canada, in urban and rural areas.

RCMP spokesman Cpl. Joe Taplin said they have seen the affect of
organized crime in rural areas.

"Organized crime reaches into every community in Nova Scotia, it's not
just the big city," he said.

Taplin said the RCMP runs education programs in schools across the
province on drugs, which are one of the main products of organized
crime.

There are seven street gangs in New Brunswick and none on Prince
Edward Island or Newfoundland.

Nationally, some 300 street gangs were identified, with an estimated
11,000 members.

There are 800 total organized crime groups operating in the country,
up from 600 several years ago, with a makeup as diverse as the
country's cultural mosaic, RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli said
yesterday.

"Organized crime has come to represent the darker side of
globalization by exploiting the same things we've come to take for
granted - the free flow of goods and people around the world and the
rapid advancement of technology," Zaccardelli said.

The CISC is an Ottawa-based federal body that consists of 380 law
enforcement agencies and is governed by a committee that is chaired by
the commissioner of the RCMP.