SEIZING ASSETS KEY IN BIKER BATTLE

London's top cop hopes Ottawa is serious about bringing bikers "to their
knees."

Police Chief Julian Fantino said he's optimistic Solicitor General Andy
Scott will come on board today in a meeting in Ottawa with the Canadian
Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP), who have had a strategy of their
own in place for several years to fight organized crime and biker gangs.

Fantino hopes Scott will tell a group of Canada's top police chiefs,
prosecutors and criminal justice officials that police agencies should be
able to keep the seized assets of criminals.

Fantino is chairperson of the CACP's national strategy committee on outlaw
motorcycle gangs.

"Our intent is to unite the forces of law and order in this country to
target the activities of outlaw motorcycle gangs. . . . They are a very
serious threat and economic liability to our country. Using the laws of the
land, our intent is to disrupt and dismantle their criminal activities.''

Fantino believes the drug activities of biker gangs have a major impact on
day-to-day crime in cities. For instance, small-time dealers and drug users
have to find money. Consequently, bank robberies, street muggings,
break-ins and variety store and gas bar holdups are often drug-related.

The chiefs in Ontario have recently formed an a yet-to-be-announced
provincial special squad to battle biker crime. The unit, supported by
Solicitor General Bob Runciman, consists of members loaned by major forces
in Ontario, including London, Fantino says.

The CACP believes the only way to bring bikers to their knees is to seize
their assets -- houses, boats, cars and bank accounts.

"Take their profits away,'' Fantino said. "That's how to put them out of
business."

He said municipal police forces, which are required to justify to taxpayers
every dollar they spend, must play "catch-up."

"It comes down to resources. It comes down to a critical need for us to be
able to dedicate people and support for long-term, involved and technical
investigations."

There is currently a formula in place between the federal and provincial
governments for the disposition of "proceeds of crime'' but it isn't clear
where all the money goes. Some of it, Fantino said, comes back to municipal
forces to be used for such work as crime prevention, but much of it winds
up in "the black hole" in Ottawa.

A spokesperson for Canada's street cops said he doubts the federal
government has the "political will" to seriously combat biker gangs. "We're
not interested in what this government says," said Scott Newark, executive
director of the 15,000-member Canadian Police Association. "We have made
some very constructive and do-able (suggestions) and we have run into a
wall of indifference."

Newark said his member police officers don't put much faith in Scott's vow
to bring bikers to "their knees."

He said he'll be at today's meeting, but doubts it will be very successful
because the feds have yet to respond to repeated demands by police to get
tougher with the gangs.

He said the federal government has rejected demands by police to deport
criminal immigrants and to adopt a U.S-style law to make membership in a
biker gang an offence.

Scott said today's meeting will examine ways to strengthen criminal
intelligence, information sharing and develop a new offensive to deal with
technological advances made by biker gangs.

The government may also propose new legislative action to fight organized
crime, such as a new measures to combat money laundering, he added.

Earlier this week in Cornwall, Fantino pressed his concerns over lax laws
and immigration policies to a conference involving Canadian and American
law-enforcement officials that focused on smuggling and organized crime.

"There has to be a very concerted effort to disrupt and dismantle the
activities of organized crime," Fantino said. "That includes everyone, not
just the police."

Other countries crack down on organized crime, while crooks -- both
foreign-born and domestic -- crank up their operations in Canada, he said.

"Canada has been regarded as a good place to do business for organized
crime because of some of our lax or relaxed laws, including the immigration
issues."

Copyright (c) 1998 The London Free Press a division of Sun Media Corporation