OPPAL AND MEXICAN OFFICIALS JOIN FORCES TO FIGHT GANGS

VICTORIA (CP)-- Criminal gangs don't pay attention to international
borders, a fact that spurred a meeting yesterday between the
attorneys-general of British Columbia and the northern Mexican state
of Baja California looking for ways to fight the transnational gang
network. Baja California's Rommel Moreno Manjarrez and B.C.'s Wally
Oppal signed a statement of intent pledging to share information to
fight drug-trafficking gangs who kill to protect their turf.

The information-sharing statement could ultimately lead to B.C.
justice officials working in Mexico to help catch and jail gang
members, they said.

"At this moment our experience is the state's 250 port cities were
attacked by the Mexican [drug] cartels," Mr. Manjarrez said.

"We're trying to find some path to collaborate with Canadians. We
know we are now in a kind of a war. We are trying to help and at the
same time receive help."

Mr. Oppal said the criminal gangs have cocaine, marijuana and weapons
trafficking connections reaching into Western Canada, the United
States and south to Mexico.

"There have been over 9,000 murders in Mexico last year and the
murders include killings of police, judges, prosecutors, witnesses
and members of the public," he said.

"When I attended the American AGs' meetings, the American AGs all up
and down the coast agreed that it was our duty to help Mexico, which
is going through these very difficult times."

Gang violence linked to illegal drug trafficking has gripped British
Columbia, with more than 40 shootings and 17 deaths since late January.

Mr. Oppal said he discussed information sharing and other
crime-fighting strategies with his Mexican counterparts.

"This crime that is taking place here is clearly connected with other
jurisdictions," he said. "Our marijuana goes south, their cocaine,
their guns come north. This is just a part of co-operating with one another."

Mr. Oppal wasn't able to make immediate promises when it came to
sending justice officials to Mexico from British Columbia. B.C. RCMP
officers and prosecutors have been working in Guatemala for years, he
said, but British Columbia has serious needs at home.

The B.C. government has been under fire recently from the Opposition
New Democrats for having too few police officers and Crown
prosecutors to fight B.C. drug-crime problems.

"The question of whether or not we would send prosecutors there would
have to be seriously considered," Mr. Oppal said. "We need prosecutors here."

Rob Gordon, a Simon Fraser University criminologist, said sending
legal officials from British Columbia to Mexico will do little to
help that country's deep-rooted problems when it comes to drug gangs
and its justice system.

Mr. Gordon applauded Mr. Oppal's moves to work with the Mexicans and
other jurisdictions when it comes to fighting gangs.

But he said British Columbia would make a greater impact if it worked
at home to tighten northern border points to make it difficult to
smuggle drugs and other illegal items into and out of Canada.

"I'm not sure that flooding northern Mexico with lawyers is going to
solve the problem," he said. "Our concern is really how we stem the
flow of cocaine into Canada."

Mr. Gordon said cocaine-trafficking routes are well established and
spread from deep in South America to Mexico, the United States and into Canada.

He recently attended a cross-border crime conference in San Diego,
where officials discussed how deeply drug crime pervades Mexican
society and the deadly extent of the drug war in the northern states.

"It's the army and the federal police taking on organized crime
groups and they are just shooting it out on the streets," Mr. Gordon
said. "This organized crime problem has completely disabled
[Mexico's] criminal justice system."

Crime groups are terrorizing communities into compliance, he said