ORGANIZED CRIME STAYING A STEP AHEAD

Outdated Technology, Legal Hurdles Slowing Down Efforts to Catch Bad Guys

Organized crime groups in Canada have become more sophisticated in
covering their tracks -- and police are struggling to keep up.

That's the troubling portrait contained in hundreds of pages of
often-candid testimony compiled by a House of Commons committee that
spent a year travelling from Vancouver to Halifax.

Police leaders and crime experts testified organized crime groups
have kept ahead of police by getting the latest communication
devices, spreading their activities across multiple borders, and
moving and hiding their assets.

Police said their ability to gather intelligence is often bogged down
by outdated technology and bureaucratic and legal hurdles.

Organized crime is "deeply rooted and insidious, and rapidly
growing," Conservative MP Ed Fast, chairman of the standing committee
on justice and human rights, said in an interview. The committee
plans to release a report with recommendations in the fall, he said.

There are more than 900 organized crime groups across the country,
most concentrated in B.C.'s Lower Mainland, southern Ontario and
Greater Montreal, the committee heard. Groups range from local street
gangs to highly structured, well-financed outfits with national and
international reach.

Although drug-trafficking is still their bailiwick, organized crime
groups are also involved in mortgage fraud, identity theft,
counterfeit merchandise and human trafficking, the committee heard.

While some crime groups can be identified by their tattoos, the
colour of their clothes or their ethnic makeup, many groups these
days are more amorphous and "polyethnic."

That doesn't mean there still aren't turf wars. Violence over
territory and control of illicit markets continues to climb, the
committee was told.

While the homicide rate in Canada has remained relatively stable over
the past decade, gang-related homicides are up. Nearly a quarter -138
- -- of the 611 homicides in Canada in 2008 were gang-related, 20 more
than the year before, according to Statistics Canada. As a way of
avoiding detection, many organized crime groups have spread their
activities across different regions, the committee heard.

"Many organizations have become more sophisticated in that they
compartmentalize their operations and expand over a number of
countries," said Mike Cabana, assistant commissioner of the RCMP's
federal and international operations in Ottawa.

Those who can afford it are also using "facilitators," such as
lawyers and accountants, to help secure loans, incorporate shell
companies and open bank accounts.

"They're being told how to hide their money, how to move their money
and how to make more," said Supt. Doug Kiloh, head of the B.C. RCMP's
Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit.

To further insulate themselves, groups are using the latest wireless
devices and encryption technology. Some have purchased illegal
jamming devices that interfere with police radio and cellphone signals.

"There are many examples of police officers conducting traffic stops
who have their phones and, in some cases, their police radios made
non-functional because of the application of these jamming devices,"
said Calgary police chief Rick Hanson.

Groups have resorted to intimidating witnesses and corrupting workers
in the police and judicial system.

Several who testified said one way to combat organized crime would be
mandatory minimum sentences for certain serious crimes.

"In my view, it is a serious offence if a person is found guilty for
participating in organized crime," said Allan Wachowich, a former
chief justice in Alberta. "This undermines our whole social
structure, undermines our society; it is an evil that has to be eradicated."

Others recommended lawmakers hit the criminals where it really hurts
- -- in the pocketbook.

"It's not rare to see at the conclusion of our investigations that
the accused are much more concerned with the loss of their assets
than with the length of their sentences," said Insp. Sylvain Joyal of
the RCMP drug section in Montreal.

Revenue Canada should be given more powers to investigate organized
crime groups, testified Michel Auger, a retired investigative
journalist in Quebec.

"Al Capone was caught out on taxes and that's the direction we should
be taking because the entire problem of organized crime in Canada is
based on clandestine money that isn't touched," he said.

Many police officials complained they lack adequate technology to
intercept text messages and cellphone calls between crime group
members, and that it often takes too long to get judges' approvals
for interceptions.

Police and prosecutors also complained that investigations can get
bogged down because of onerous disclosure laws that require them to
hand over huge volumes of evidence to the defence.

Others suggested decriminalizing marijuana -- the "currency" of the
organized crime world -- would deal a big blow to crime groups.

"Getting rid of drug prohibition, starting with pot, is the only real
thing left to do that will almost certainly work to reduce the power,
income, and membership of organized crime gangs," said James Dubro,
who has written extensively on organized crime in Canada. "We must
get at what fuels the growth and profits of the mobs."

But the bulk of the marijuana produced in Canada is exported,
countered Darryl Plecas, director of the Centre for Criminal Justice
Research at the University of the Fraser Valley.

"We are dreaming if we think for a minute that decriminalization is
going to impact whatsoever on organized crime," he said.