GANGS TURN FROM MURDER

Violence Still Used To Solve Disputes

Metro Vancouver gangsters are turning away from murder, but still
solving their disputes with beatings, kidnappings and threats, the
head of the Gang Task Force says.

Supt. Dan Malo, of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, said
the rampant out-of-control shootings of a year ago may seem like a
memory, but gangs remain in conflict and dangerous across the region.

"I think there is a definite change in behaviour of the gangs still
involved in conflict. We still hear there is conflict going on between
gangs. There are still dial-a-dope operations being taken over with
violence. But that level of violence involves a beating. Or it might
involve a stabbing.

"It might involve a kidnapping for four or five hours where there's an
acceptance of a loss of a territory or a drug line," Malo said in an
interview. "They are not taking that behavioural final step which is
that Billy or Bobby has got to die."

By this time last year, there had been 21 murders in the Lower
Mainland, 14 of which were suspected of being gang-linked. So far this
year, there have been seven murders in the region with just four
suspected of being connected to gangs or organized crime.

"We are not hearing about the contracts, whereas last year, I was
hearing that a group had five, six, seven or eight contracts on a list
of people," Malo said. "Contractors would get a list of four or five
people and would pick which of those they were going to go kill."

Lower Mainland gangs mostly hire hit men to carry out executions of
rivals, Malo said.

Some of the more than 50 gangsters arrested in different
investigations over the last year are suspected of being responsible
for murders, even though they are facing lesser charges, Malo confirmed.

As well, other suspected contract killers have been murdered
themselves. And others have left the country, Malo said.

He said some of the mid-level gangs members are telling the Gang Task
Force they have changed their ways.

"They haven't really got out of the business," he said. "They have
quieted the overt level of violence that they are prepared to act on.
So they are still involved in drug dealing."

A new disturbing trend is an increase in the number of targeted gang
home invasions, Malo said.

"Home invasions have definitely spiked," he said.

Police reacted to the gang slayings in recent years by shifting their
investigative focus to the groups causing the most risk to the public,
Malo said.

Instead of just targeting traditional organized crime, where the level
of violence remains steady, law enforcement agencies went after the
most violent and brazen gangs in any given week or month, he said.

"We have targeted who we have heard through intelligence sources is
currently the highest risk to the public today," he said. "And I think
that is a significant shift in thinking and I think really now we are
seeing the success of that."

Malo said gangsters have to understand that if they take their battle
to the streets, there will be severe consequences.

Gangsters don't necessarily go after enemies themselves. They often
put the contracts out to tender.

"They are able to reach somebody who will decide whether they will
pick up the contract or not. And sometimes what will happen is that an
individual will pick up a contract to kill somebody or sometimes what
will happen is the contract is thrown out into the general populous to
say anybody who kills so and so, there is $10,000 on their head," Malo
explained.

"Many times, the people that commit these murders will actually ask if
this is an exclusive contract for them to pick up or not."

Hits are put on people for a variety of reasons, he
said.

"So many of these contracts, from our experience have been that the
gangs have a beef with somebody -it could be everything from a load of
drugs that gets lost, to a tax that doesn't get paid to a conflict
gang against gang. The reasons for the conflicts -I can make a list of
them, but they vary," Malo said.