GANGSTER ARRESTS MAY START POWER STRUGGLE: PLECAS

Thursday's takedown of high-profile Red Scorpion gang member [name
redacted] in Abbotsford, and UN gang leader [name redacted] in Kelowna
could have "organized crime soldiers" fighting to fill a power vacuum,
police believe.

[name redacted], 25 is regarded by law enforcement as one of the founding
members of the Scorpions and [name redacted], 50, the de facto head of the
UN gang.

Supt. Doug Kiloh is the head of the RCMP's Combined Forces Special
Enforcement Unit, and said the arrests have delivered a "severe blow"
to both organized crime syndicates, who have been waging a bloody war
against each other in the Lower Mainland for years.

[names redacted] were rolled up along with several associates in
multiple stings as part of a months-long multiple-jurisdictional
undercover police operation called Project E-Pintle.

Posing as members of a Mexican drug cartel, undercover officers asked
both gangs for $100,000 deposits to secure access to 100 kilos of
cocaine valued at $3 million. The UN gang paid, but the Scorpions didn't.

Darryl Plecas, a criminology professor at the University of the Fraser
Valley, said the issue now is less about infighting to assume
leadership and more about the survival of the gangs themselves.

"These people don't take a hint," said Plecas, referring to gang
members.

"Somebody will definitely be trying to take control, but if it's
somebody from within those gangs, they're dreaming if they think
they're going to have success at it."

The latest arrests illustrate the depth of police intelligence into
the gang's infrastructure, he said, adding that gang members
themselves are most likely supplying police with information.

"For these people it's a matter of time . . . people in gangs forget
this. "There's only three options; you will go to jail, you will get
killed, or you will get out," he said. "It's not like these people
have long lifespans."

Const. Ian MacDonald with the Abbotsford Police said co-operation
between the different law enforcement agencies was key to gathering
criminal intelligence and securing the arrests.