POLICE REORGANIZE TO BATTLE DRUG TRADE

CITY police have reorganized to more effectively fight the drug trade
controlled by organized crime groups in Winnipeg.

Staff Sgt. John Ormondroyd said yesterday the organized crime unit
will be combined with the drug unit.

He said that will make it possible to deploy two shifts of
investigators during the week, putting more officers on the street who
are working together rather than in separate units.

Ormondroyd said the refocusing of how police go after gangs wasn't
driven by any event. Rather, he said, it is an acknowledgment that
officers in the drug unit and officers in the organized crime unit
frequently found themselves investigating the same people.

He also said the intent of the change is to hit gangs where it will
hurt the most.

"Organized crime in Winnipeg -- the way they make money is through
drugs," Ormondroyd said. "This is a more effective way of doing
business." Officers with the two units will work in one office and
report to the same commanders, he added.

"There's less bureaucracy," Ormondroyd said. "This gives them greater
ability to communicate, share ideas and less overlap. Plus, it puts
more people on the street."

Police do not publicly comment on the number of officers assigned to
investigative units.

The switch-over -- it should be completed by April 20 when the current
round of officer transfers and promotions is finished -- comes at a
time of apparently greater instability in the city's drug trade. On
March 11, Hells Angel member Billy Bowden was wounded in a shooting at
a Corydon Avenue bar. Police do not know why he was shot, but it's
believed to be drug-related.

According to police, the Bandidos outlaw motorcycle gang is currently
attempting to establish a chapter in the city. Police sources say the
evolution of the Bandidos in Winnipeg since last October, and the fact
they're openly flaunting their gang's insignia in a city supposedly
controlled by the Hells Angels, is likely a sign of bad things to come.

The Hells Angels are the most prominent of the city's drug gangs and
are known to set and enforce a strict street price for narcotics.
Independent drug dealers are allowed to work as long as they sell
drugs supplied by the gang or pay a tax to the gang if they bring
drugs into the city themselves.

Asian gangs also control a segment of the city's trade in cocaine, a
variety of designer drugs, marijuana and, increasingly, crystal
methanphetamine.

Police sources say the Hells Angels and Asian gangs have so far been
co-existing peacefully, but for how long that will be the case remains
anyone's guess. With the introduction of the Bandidos, the drug pie
could be carved into three pieces.

"The Hells Angels and the Bandidos have a world-wide truce," a police
source said. "But the Asians don't have a truce with anyone. They
don't want to lose customers. There's a lot of money to be made."

Yves Lavigne, a Toronto author who has written on the Hells Angels and
organized crime, said yesterday the change in how city police
investigate gangs is a big step in the right direction.

"Criminals don't have bureaucracies -- they only have bottom lines,"
he said.

And those bottom lines are fuelled by drug sales, he said. "You don't
see gangs fighting each other any more," he said. "There's room for
everyone. That's because there's been a huge growth in the drug
market. It just seems endless. It's like an exploding universe.

"So I see this change as police getting smarter. They're not going to
wait for the violence to start there. They're going to go after these
guys before it gets that way."