NAMING NAMES WILL HELP FIGHT ORGANIZED CRIME: COLEMAN

Law enforcement agencies are making "huge steps" forward in the fight
against organized crime, which the B.C. government has linked to the
billion-dollar marijuana grow-op industry.

It will be able to go a lot further if it wins the legal right to name
businesses that have links to Hell's Angels, according to Rich Coleman,
B.C.'s Solicitor General and the MLA for Fort Langley-Aldergrove.

Last week, Coleman told an Okanagan newspaper that the Angels operate bona
fide businesses as well as grow-ops in Kelowna. He said his ministry is
aware of the ownership and the link to illegal pot growing, but can't
publicly reveal them.

On Tuesday, he revealed that there are businesses in Langley "that have
some affiliation with the Hells Angels. I can't tell you who they are,
because we are not allowed to."

He said that the government is continuing to find a legal channel that will
allow it to name businesses associated with Hells Angels. He added that
advances in technology and the addition of more police officers will help
fight organized crime, which police have linked to Vietnamese, Russian and
Indo-Canadian gangs.

"We are dead serious and we will work to the core until we get the solution
we need," Coleman said.