VANCOUVER LOSING FIGHT WITH GANGS, MAYOR SAYS

Area Sees Five Shootings In Two Days; Robertson Says Canada's Olympic
City Needs More Support To 'Turn The Tide'

VANCOUVER -- Canada's Olympic city is losing the fight against gang
violence, its mayor admitted yesterday.

"I know the police have been working very hard and trying to get ahead
of it, but we can't underestimate the scale of what's going on right
now," Gregor Robertson told reporters yesterday. "We need more
support, frankly, to turn the tide on this." He called anti-gang
efforts so far "a losing battle," commenting on a series of shootings
across Metro Vancouver Tuesday night and yesterday morning that left
two people dead and three others injured.

The shootings included a hit in East Vancouver that left Sunil Mall,
27, slumped dead at the wheel of his SUV and added to the perception
of tit-for-tat violence in what's been described as the national
capital of gang activity.

In Surrey, there were three shootings within hours of each other, with
two men going to hospital with bullet wounds. In Burnaby, a shooting
in a high-rise left a woman dead and a man seriously injured.

"It shows how huge this battle really is," Mr. Robertson
said.

The mayor has been an outspoken supporter of a regional police force
for Metro Vancouver, which is served by a mix of municipal and RCMP
forces.

The gunfire began in the evening of the same day the RCMP and
Vancouver Police, during a rare joint news conference, touted a
breakthrough in their war on gangs with five arrests, including that
of Barzan Tilli-Choli, 26, the reputed head of the UN Gang.

Both were taken to hospital, police said.

The spate of violence came after RCMP and Vancouver Police, during a
rare joint news conference Tuesday morning, touted a breakthrough in
their war on gangs with five arrests, including that of Barzan
Tilli-Choli, 26, the reputed head of the UN Gang.

Mr. Tilli-Choli has been charged with two counts of attempted murder
in connection with a targeted shooting last month in Surrey.

The UN Gang - whose former boss, Clayton Roueche, is in jail in
Seattle awaiting trial on drug charges - is part of a gang scene
driven by a multibillion-dollar drug trade that features British
Columbia-grown marijuana and imported cocaine and that reaches into
neighbouring Alberta, across the border into Washington and even down
to Mexico.

With Mexico racked by drug wars that have killed thousands and
disrupted supplies, ripple effects are being felt in the U.S. and Canada.

Crime agency estimates say there are more than 120 criminal
organizations at work in B.C. The number and the sophistication of the
groups involved makes Vancouver the centre of organized crime in
Canada, Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan said last month during a
trip to Vancouver.

An RCMP spokesman yesterday described the Tuesday shootings as
"coincidence" and said it was not yet clear that all of them were
linked to gangs. "We need to put this in perspective," said Corporal
Peter Thiessen, while repeating police promises that more arrests are
to come.

Nine people have been killed in recent weeks in shootings that have
taken place at supermarkets, shopping malls and on quiet streets next
to parks and golf courses. One woman was gunned down as she drove with
her four-year-old son in the car. The child survived.

Constable Lindsey Houghton of the Vancouver Police Department said the
force shares community concerns about brazen violence.

"These acts of violence do frustrate us. We share the concerns of the
public. We want, more than anyone, to arrest those responsible for
this so we can have press conferences giving people good news,"
Constable Houghton said.

Asked about the police failure to arrest suspects in major shootings
in recent years, he said "these investigations are extremely complex
and take a lot of time and efforts and resources to have a successful
conclusion."

For example, police have yet to make any arrests in the August, 2007,
shooting of eight people dining in an all-night Chinese eatery in East
Vancouver, the Fortune Happiness Restaurant. Two men died, and the
others suffered injuries.

The latest shootings are about "power and territory" among gang
members, Cpl. Thiessen said.

"It's all about getting control of a larger share of the [drug]
market," he said. "They're carrying out business, but not in a way
that a normal business carries out business. It's about control of
territory, the power. When there's a lack of co-operation around that,
they kill each other."