DRUGS AND VIOLENCE IN THE HOOD

Police Chase Gangsters In A Prince George Neighbourhood Ripped Apart
By A Bloody Drug War

Members of the Uniformed Gang Task Force approach a drug addict as
they cruise the crack-shack infested neighbourhood known as the Hood.

The addict wants to talk to police. He wants to share information.
But he is terrified. He asks Sgt. Mark Jordan to pretend to arrest
him for his protection. Jordan, an Abbotsford police officer, slaps
on the cuffs and puts the man in the back of a task force SUV. He is
still worried.

"I don't want to be the next one f---ing shot man," he said. "It is a
big war right now."

He explains that the Game Tight Soldiers (GTS) run the shacks on two
streets in the Hood -- and the Independent Soldiers (IS) run them on
two other streets. Both gangs originated in Vancouver, but have
shifted north. They are in conflict over buyers and territory in this
poor, downtrodden neighbourhood of simple homes built under the
Veterans Land Act.

The man tells Jordan he likes the quality of the crack sold by the IS
because it's purer and better. The GTS mixes theirs with other drugs,
including speed. But he wouldn't want to be in debt to the
Independent Soldiers because of their reputation for brutality.

"They will cut your finger off for $20," he told Jordan. "These two
gangs are both run by young kids and they are running around with guns."

Shootings. Murders. Mutilations. The escalating gang activity in this
northern hub has come from Metro Vancouver gangs moving in and
setting up shop, importing their ruthless tactics, their drugs and their guns.

And that has brought the Metro Vancouver-based Gang Task Force to
town for the second time in two months, bringing their techniques of
public bar checks, street enforcement and intelligence gathering.

Over four days and nights, the Gang Task Force stops dozens of
gangsters, associates, dealers and addicts, checking their ID,
ensuring they're adhering to court conditions, and removing them from
licensed establishments to protect public safety.

RCMP Supt. Brenda Butterworth-Carr, the officer-in-charge of the
Prince George detachment, says she's happy to have the team in town
given the relationship between the gangs here and those on the south coast.

"We have seen various gang members from different gangs in the Lower
Mainland -- the Hells Angels, the Game Tight Soldiers, the
Independent Soldiers -- come into Prince George," she told The
Vancouver Sun. "We have seen the increase in gang violence, we have
seen the increase in just violence as it pertains to the drug trade
in general."

Gangs recruit children

The seven Gang Task Force members are driving around with several
others from the newly established northern office of the Combined
Forces Special Enforcement Unit (CFSEU) with a Sun reporter in tow.

Their first stop is the freshly painted clubhouse of the Renegades
biker gang, where no one is answering. They leave a business card
with a "sorry we missed you" note and are just leaving when three men
on Harleys pull up outside.

One is Jason Hall, a longtime Renegade wearing his leather vest with
full-patch deathhead on the back. The other two are wearing vests
with partial patches or "bottom rockers," indicating they will soon
be members of the Hells Angels puppet club.

Jordan asks a hoodied biker if he's heard of the Game Tight Soldiers,
the gang from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside that is now dominating
local crack shacks.

The biker laughs.

"Are you kidding me? Don't you know who I am?"

He then discloses that he's Steven King, founder of the GTS, once
sent back to Ontario by Vancouver police as part of its Con-Air program

King claims his Renegades vest is "borrowed from a friend" and he
refuses to lay out the relationship between the biker gang and the GTS.

He even expresses approval that the Gang Task Force has made the trip
up from Metro Vancouver to help stem the "crazy violence" that has
led to seven murders so far this year.

King, 37, acts friendly with the gang specialists, showing off his
tattoos and claiming recent Penticton drug charges against him are a "setup."

He boasts that he never would have had the small-time stash of crack
"spitballs" that police uncovered.

"At least they could have planted a brick in my couch," he laughs,
flashing a mouthful of gold-capped teeth.

Local RCMP estimate there are 30 to 40 GTS members or associates --
about half the 80 gangsters believed to be living in the city.

The explosion in identifiable gangs is new to this city of 80,000,
known as the gateway to B.C.'s northern frontier.

Butterworth-Carr thinks some of it is displacement from the law
enforcement crackdown in the Lower Mainland.

There is money to be made here in the drug trade, from those in the
resource industries who party on days off, to the college and
university students, to the more vulnerable addict population.

Sgt. Raj Sidhu, of the new CFSEU team, has lived here for 15 years
and has seen the shift in the drug trade.

Hells Angels and the Renegades have always controlled the market, but
as brokers, he said, bringing the product in and distributing it in
larger quantities to others.

"Now they have moved into direct dealing. The profit is huge."

He said the bikers have insulated themselves by using the Game Tight
Soldiers, the Independent Soldiers and other street-level gangs to
run the crack shacks.

"When I came here in 1995, the violence wasn't that bad. You never
heard of anyone getting kidnapped or held in a basement for days. The
business dealings were different," Sidhu said.

The first big violent gang in Prince George was the Crew. Sidhu was
part of a major investigation that led to several Crew members
getting convicted of aggravated assault and other charges for cutting
off fingers and splitting open heads over drug debts.

The successful prosecution led to the Crew's demise. But the void was
soon filled by both the IS and the GTS.

Sidhu said the Renegades are not as big a force as they were before
the murder of their leader, Billy Moore, in March 2005. His
bullet-riddled body was found in his car near the charred ruins of
his rural home just two months after he and others were charged in a
B.C.-wide drug ring.

Despite the fact both the GTS and the IS have relationships with the
Renegades and the Hells Angels, the conflicts between the two imports
over the crack cocaine trade, as well as other personal disputes,
have been deadly.

Just last month, Darren Munch was gunned down in the 2400-block of
Oak in the Hood. He had links to the Independent Soldiers.

Prince George RCMP have taken action, setting up a downtown
enforcement unit and a team targeting crime reduction on top of the
drug task force. The CFSEU team became fully operational in July and
is targeting the bigger players in organized crime in the city.

Butterworth-Carr said the combination of tactics is making a
difference on city streets, where locals are stressed to see
Vancouver-style violence and daylight shootings.

"A lot of the conflict is about who is going to be the largest gang,
who is going to sell more of the product, who is going to control the
environment versus another gang that may be in the community," she said.

Most concerning is the attempt by groups like the GTS to recruit
vulnerable local kids into their gangs, Butterworth-Carr said.

"There is a sense of family. There is a sense of belonging and it is
sensationalized really," she said of the disturbing appeal. "There is
the glitter of it. They think, 'If I am part of this and I want to
make money, I am going to be able to make it extremely fast and live
a certain type of lifestyle.'"

Her officers have run into young children already being approached by gangs.

"We are not immune to the recruiting of eight, nine and 10
year-olds," Butterworth-Carr said.

Cpl. Kent MacNeill, of the downtown enforcement unit, said the GTS is
now the dominant gang in town.

"They are the first group that has overtly gone out and tattooed
themselves," he said.

There are now Game Tight Soldiers walking around with either GTS-PG
tattoos, showing their origins are local or others with GTS-EV,
indicating they are from east Vancouver.

"They are wearing black and red bandanas. They are wearing clothing
that says what their gang name is, hats that say GTS. That is a big
change for Prince George," MacNeill said. "That started in the last
several months where they have really gone out there and wanted
everyone to see who they were."

The strong public display of imagery makes the gang even more
attractive to some.

"They are dealing with a lot of people who have come from broken
homes and they really seem to enjoy that camaraderie and the respect
they get in the street when people know they are a GTS member or they
walk into a room and people pay attention to them," MacNeill said.
"At the same time, they also feel it protects them a little bit. When
they walk around a bar with a GTS hat on, maybe no one is going to
mess with them."

The price of admission into the club can be high -- even some of the
newest recruits are arrested with handguns and ammunition, MacNeill said.

"These young guys, freshly recruited, everything to prove, are
looking for that sense of belonging in that gang and their superiors
are egging them on to do something. Those are the guys we have to be
really careful of."

Bullet in my backyard

Jacobi Farrell walks around the Hood like he has something to prove.
He is wearing a red ball cap with the GTS logo on it. The same
letters are tattooed onto his neck and it says Game Tight on his
right hand. He wears a red and black bandana and a matching T-shirt
with the words "thug life" written on it. He is walking with his
girlfriend, a younger first nations boy and two bull mastiffs.

Police say Farrell arrived in town about a year ago from Vancouver
and has been a GTS fixture ever since.

Farrell is not happy when the Gang Task Force pulls over to ask him
about GTS activities in the neighbourhood. He starts yelling at them.

"I am a f---ing gangster. You are f---ing cops. Stick to what you do."

He tells a group of six or seven cops to leave because he is "getting
too hot and bothered."

Jordan, who leads this Gang Task Force team, has already met Farrell
on previous patrols around the Hood.

The neighbourhood has tried to revitalize itself. There is a
community garden where people can grow food and some have worked to
fix up their houses -- a new coat of paint, maybe some siding or a
laminate floor.

Const. Lesley Smith said some of the homeowners who've spruced things
up have had their efforts sabotaged by vandals working for the gangs
and their crack shacks. It is in their interest to keep the houses
rundown and the neighbours on edge. Streets in the Hood are lined
with for-sale signs.

Most of the properties are owned by landlords who have bought them as
investments. Gangs use renters to start up crack shacks.

When 40-year-old Treena Sarsfield was a child in the VLA, life was
good. Kids played in the street. It was a close-knit community.

"It wasn't like this with guys carrying guns and shooting and killing
each other," she said.

The single mom moved back a few years ago with her kids "because I
can't afford to live anywhere else."

And she was shocked at the decline. "We never worried before about
gangs or drugs," she told The Sun and Gang Task Force members during
their recent visit.

Now she won't let her kids walk around the neighbourhood by
themselves. She is really glad to see the Gang Task Force in town to
shake things up.

"I lived on Quince and I had a bullet come through my back yard where
my one-and-a-half-year-old was playing. I didn't realize there was a
crack shack right behind me."

Hitting the streets

Sgt. Mark Jordan starts his Prince George work day just like he does
on the Lower Mainland -- briefing his team on the plans for the
12-hour shift and any intelligence police have received about the
activities of local gang members. News of the Gang Task Force's
second trip to Prince George has spread through the criminal
underworld, including the local jail.

"All of the bad guys know we are in town, so they are going to stay
away from the bars," he said.

But there is a local rave at the Roll-A-Dome, a large former hangar
just off Highway 97. Some gang associates are expected, he said. And
there is information that a well-known Chilliwack gangster is in town.

The team breaks up into three groups and keeps in touch via radio and
BlackBerry over the course of the night.

Our group starts by driving through the Hood, then to the Renegades
clubhouse before checking out various pubs and bars. The clubs don't
get busy until much later.

At each stop, Jordan and Sidhu explain to business owners what the
task force is trying to accomplish. They explain how BarWatch works
in Metro Vancouver and how Prince George is trying to implement a
similar program so all customers can feel safe. They only remove
people if there is a risk to the public or if someone is violating
bail or parole conditions, they explain.

The task force members are generally well-received. Even when they
hit the drive-thru at Tim Hortons for coffee, the waitress tells them
it is good they're in town.

At 10 p.m. on Friday, nightclubs downtown like the Generator and the
Rum Jungle are dead. The few patrons suggest police head over to the
Roll-ADome party where hundreds are expected. The team meets up with
the local liquor inspector who has some concerns about the event.

When the task force arrives, there are underage teenage girls
vomiting outside. They do a sweep of the building in formation -- a
long line to ensure everyone is protected from attack.

They find three men with suspected gang ties, including one linked to
the Independent Soldiers. They ask all three to leave; the men are
not happy about it.

"You have known gang affiliations," Jordan explains to the IS
associate wearing an Armani shirt. Police are concerned the gangs are
there to recruit youth at the party or to sell ecstasy and other party drugs.

A fight breaks out inside the doorway and the task force members race
to take control of the situation. They end up closing the party down
as the crowd gets increasingly restless. Several more fights erupt
and the task force jumps in to assist Prince George RCMP officers.

As we drive around the streets of downtown Prince George, Sidhu
continually points out spots where shootings and murders have taken
place -- including public midday gun battles like those that have
plagued the Lower Mainland in recent years. He points to the parking
lot of a Moxie's restaurant, saying someone was gunned down in early 2008.

"That's what got people worried because that sort of thing didn't
happen here," Sidhu said.

Police on the prowl

The next night, the Gang Task Force helps local police search for
members of a suspected dial-a-dope operation; they'd fled when pulled
over by RCMP. The traffickers are from the Lower Mainland and
intelligence suggests a link to the infamous Red Scorpions.

The search takes the Gang Task Force along trails winding through
residential neighbourhoods and then to an apartment building where
they assist other RCMP members going door-to-door. Even the chief,
Butterworth-Carr, is out with her team, wearing jeans and RCMP body armour.

They don't locate the drug suspects, but later that night, Joey
Lamont Arrance, whom police describe as a key GTS member, is arrested
in a house where police find a 10-mm Glock and a spare loaded clip.

The uniformed task force again checks out the nightclubs downtown,
which are busier than on Friday, but there is no gang presence when
the team cruises through. On the street outside, they explain to
people in line why they are in town. An intoxicated man walks up and
says there is a bear down the block by the HSBC. He asks if it is
their "jurisdiction."

They check sports bars and pubs and talk to more owners and managers.
They remove a customer from the Treasure Cove casino because he's up
on charges in Williams Lake related to marijuana production linked to bikers.

They constantly check in with members of the city detachment so they
can help on anything unfolding in town. Jordan, the team leader from
Abbotsford, stops by the police station to chat with Prince George
Staff-Sgt. Jeff McArthur. Jordan admits he was surprised by the size
of the gang problem when he first came to town.

McArthur says the tension between the IS and the GTS is so great that
Vancouver hip-hop group Swollen Members tried to bring them together
at a concert on Sept. 11.

He said members of each of the street gangs were present at the event
at the Roll-ADome and that both GTS and IS members were brought on
the stage. At one point, someone in the band was shouting to the
crowd, "Ah yes, GTS."

"It was like it was a concert organized to mend the fences between
the Independent Soldiers and the Game Tight Solders," he said.

Police found out later King was backstage with his Renegade friends
and some Hells Angels, McArthur said.

But tensions remain high and the possibility of more violence is
great. Butterworth-Carr says city residents are rightfully concerned
about the escalating violence and the chance that innocents could be
killed, just like in the Surrey Six slayings of October 2007.

"It is very vicious in terms of their interactions with each other.
We see these drive-by shootings or individuals who are murdered based
upon their affiliation with whatever gang entity, whether it is
sanctioned by the senior gang members or not. It is still occurring
and it creates a tremendous amount of stress and fear in the
community in general," she said.

The community is on board with pro-active measures, including the
visiting Gang Task Force. After its first visit in August, there was
lots of feedback, including from local gangsters who said they
preferred to deal with local police.

"The general population is very supportive of the efforts that are
being made to mitigate and disrupt these particular gangs and their
associates," Butterworth-Carr said. "Gang violence is intolerable."