GANGS PREYING ON YOUNG

WINNIPEG - Which street gang do police believe is currently the most
ruthless and violent in Manitoba?

One whose reach and influence extends across the Prairies - in
communities and prisons - and to pre-teen kids who are being
recruited to do the bidding of older members.

The Indian Posse, or IP, is high on the police radar in Manitoba
because it is an aggressive, violent and large gang with smaller
cells or affiliate gangs in tiny or remote northern communities.

It's gaining further notoriety for a troubling trend that has emerged
in recent years, RCMP said.

The gang is using its junior members or affiliates - hardened kids as
young as 13 or 14 - to carry out violent assaults or shootings
against its enemies, and recruiting children 10 to 12 years old to
run illicit drugs for cash rewards.

It's the gang's attempt to use to law as an advantage, knowing kids
12 and under won't wind up in court before a judge because they're too young.

"They're using the youth who cannot be charged criminally to
distribute the product," said Sgt. Pat Olson, an RCMP officer with
the province's integrated gang intelligence unit.

It's done by older members in an attempt to insulate themselves, he said.

And it's yet another example of gangs preying on people who have
little and come from impoverished communities, Olson said Thursday
during a presentation to reporters about gangs and organized crime groups.

The IP originated in 1988 and is one of the first aboriginal street
gangs in Canada.

One of its founders, Daniel Richard Wolfe, was arrested in Winnipeg
last month after escaping from a Regina jail in August. Wolfe is
being held in Regina while he awaits trial on two counts of
first-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder.

IP members earn money by selling drugs (crack cocaine being the most
common), extortion, forcing young girls into prostitution, and other
illegal activities, police said.

Olson said the younger ones are threatened with violence to convince
them not to squeal to police - or reveal the people they're working
for - when arrested.

Don't think they're afraid to go to jail, however.

"For these young fellows, going to jail is not a fear - it's a rite
of passage," said Staff Sgt. Mike McTaggart of the Winnipeg RCMP
criminal intelligence section.

Not all of the IP's violence is directed externally. It appears there
has been some internal turmoil or cleansing within the gang this year.

In April, the body of murdered 23-year-old member Anthony Dwayne
Prince was found just outside Winnipeg, days after he was released
from prison. No one has been charged.

Two months later, an IP member was shot in the back when he let a
fellow gang member into his house on Ross Avenue, police said.

The victim survived but is paralyzed. At the time, police said the
34-year-old victim was shot because he wanted out of gang life. IP
member Justin Cory Meeches, 30, is wanted for attempted murder.