RISE IN WASH. GANG VIOLENCE TIED TO SPILLOVER FROM B.C.

Drug Trade Fuels Organized Crime on Both Sides of Border

U.S. cops in Whatcom County are struggling to keep a handle on an
escalating gang problem that's seen membership almost double and
rival groups exchange gunfire in the streets.

Just weeks after Lower Mainland authorities warned of growing gang
tensions here, police in Whatcom County, about an hour's drive from
Vancouver, announced the local gang population had risen from about
150 to 250 known members in 2007 to about 350 to 450 this year.

According to a recent story in the Bellingham Herald, an estimated 38
gangs now operate in the region. This spike has resulted in a rise in
gang-related murders, assaults and shootings, with many of the
gangsters getting involved in drug trafficking and street dealing.

Last month, gunfire erupted in east Bellingham between rival members
of the Brown Pride Surenos and Bonsallo Locos Surenos.

No one was injured, but the growing violence had Sheriff Bill Elfo of
the Whatcom Country sheriff's office telling the media that the
violence is an issue "we need to get a handle on."

The Herald's story said that the movement and sale of B.C.-produced
drugs by Lower Mainland groups was a key point made by the Bellingham
Police Department in a 2009 grant application to pay for a full-time
gang detective.

The report noted that the department continued to see gang members
from "lower British Columbia" come to Bellingham to "commit their crimes."

The department said further that B.C. gangsters were almost
exclusively responsible for the sale of B.C. pot and ecstasy in the area.

However, Chief Criminal Deputy Doug Chadwick of the sheriff's office
said there's no definitive link between the import of B.C. drugs to
the recent rise of gang violence in and around Bellingham.

"I don't think I could make an educated comment on that quite
honestly," Chadwick told The Province Wednesday.

Sgt. Shinder Kirk of B.C.'s Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit
said cross-border business relationships between U.S. and B.C. gangs
is nothing new.

The exchange of B.C. pot for cash, guns and cocaine is something
authorities have been aware of for years, Kirk said.

"All it means is that there's a continued demand for whatever is
grown or produced here," he said.

Kirk said there's nothing to indicate the trouble brewing just south
of the border has anything to do with recent gang tensions in Metro
Vancouver that has featured brazen, targeted shootings in Vancouver's west side.