BURSTS OF ACTIVITY PUT SPOTLIGHT ON CERTAIN GANGS

Groups Change, But Power Struggles Still Over Drugs, Expert
Says

Earlier this decade, all the headlines about gangs seemed to focus on
the old-school veterans: the Hells Angels.

Then, a few years back, they told the tale of dozens of upstart
Indo-Canadian men killing each other in Metro Vancouver.

Now those in the media spotlight appear to be mostly young, suburban
gangsters involved in public shootings.

The common denominator throughout has been the illicit drug industry,
but have the players evolved as the headlines would suggest?

Not really, argues Robert Gordon, director of the criminology
department at Simon Fraser University. All these groups have been, and
continue to be, key players in B.C.'s booming drug trade.

There are just "bursts" of activity by certain players at certain
times because of behind-the-scenes disputes, Gordon says.

What's happening now -- nine people shot in 11 days in Metro Vancouver
- -- echoes events in the fall of 2007, when 10 people were shot dead
during a month of gangland mayhem. It is also reminiscent of 2005,
when a spate of targeted killings brought to 60 the body count of
Indo-Canadian men.

Each burst of action is frightening and worrisome, but not necessarily
an indication of new groups in the drug scene, Gordon said.

For the past 15 or so years, biker gangs such as the Hells Angels have
largely provided the financing and security for drug operations, he
said. Less organized individuals and organizations, some of them
Vietnamese, specialized in growing or cooking the drugs.

A third group controlled the distribution of drugs and the collection
of money. Among this group were some of the Indo-Canadians slain
earlier this decade and the young suburban men in the news today,
Gordon said.

There have been theories about some of the Indo-Canadian men being
torn between traditional culture and modern-day society. But such
conflicts likely are not factors with many of the Fraser Valley men
involved in recent shootings. Three brothers at the centre of the news
recently, the Bacons of Abbotsford, come from an attractive home where
both parents have middle-class jobs.

In fact, Gordon argues, these brothers are not members of a "street
gang." Their lifestyle can only be described as belonging to members
of lucrative organized crime.

The reasons the Bacons and their affiliates are embroiled in a public
war that has seen bullets flying across mall parking lots and crowded
intersections could be varied.

But one distinct possibility, Gordon said, is that the mighty Hells
Angels have been wounded by recent police busts. Therefore, their
former partners are becoming competitors by expanding beyond the
distribution of drugs into production.

"The dilution of the power of the Hells Angels ... upsets the power
balance within this industry," Gordon said.

"The current situation here is probably some sort of major disruption,
a primary push for market share for one or more groups, and they are
thrashing it out."

When the death toll of Indo-Canadian men climbed to 60 a few years
back, community leaders and South Asian politicians spoke out,
demanding the violence stop. That might have stopped some from
entering gangs, Gordon said, but likely didn't convince many
entrenched gangsters -- already addicted to the money -- to leave.

Meanwhile, Solicitor-General John van Dongen announced Friday the
province is putting new money into programs to deter youth from
joining gangs and to spread the message that membership means they may
not "live to their 30th birthday."

"I'm advised that some of the more traditional, well-established gangs
are still involved," van Dongen, who is also the MLA for Abbotsford,
said in an interview with The Vancouver Sun. "They are just further in
the background.

"And some of the newer gangs, you are seeing them more on the front
line and hence, they are more visible, in terms of the turf wars and
the shootings," he said.

"Some of these young guys grew up in our own community and in our own
schools, and it is very sad to talk to people who knew them as kids
and everything seemed like a normal situation, and then they fell into
the trap of getting into gangs."

Abbotsford Mayor George Peary said city police have cameras on the
Bacon family home -- where two of the sons must continue to live to
abide by bail conditions -- and officers are stationed out front to
follow the brothers in their vehicles.

Peary said he has sought advice from the City of Surrey, where much of
the Indo-Canadian violence has played out, and is setting up a
crime-reduction task force in Abbotsford. Part of the goal is to
strengthen Block Watch and citizen parole programs, and to better
inform residents about the goings-on in communities.

The Bacon brothers are linked to the Red Scorpions gang, and Peary
said he knows of local men involved in at least two other gangs, all
of which started out small but graduated into the "big leagues" of
exporting drugs.

"It is all about drugs and powers and weapons and money, and they are
carving out their turf and trying to settle scores," he said.

SFU's Gordon said the efforts of municipalities like Abbotsford, and
stepped measures such those announced Friday by the police and the
provincial government, are well intentioned.

But Gordon, a former RCMP officer, argues B.C. needs an organized
crime agency with more resources and more staff to target gangs. There
are about 120 organized crime groups in the province right now, and
police estimate they have only enough manpower to properly track about
five of them, Gordon said.