A GOOD DAY FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT

There's no two ways about it, you've got to give the RCMP their due.
For years we've seen the local detachment engaging in a campaign of
not-so-subtly referring to the Renegades Motorcycle Club as the
purveyors of organized crime. And while that detail has yet to be
proven in a court of law, the police force has certainly made a dent
in the illegal trade of controlled drugs and substances - not to
mention the quantity of illegal firearms seized.

In what could surely be the stuff movie scripts are made of, a RCMP
member notifies superiors that he may be able to infiltrate what he
believes is a group trading in illicit drugs. Some 20 months later the
spoils of the investigation - $100,000 in cash, cocaine, firearms and
stolen property - are trotted out for media in Prince George and Vancouver.

We'll likely have to wait for the trials to commence to learn he
details of the undercover operation but we'll go out on a limb and
suggest they will be at once fascinating and troubling - imagine the
lengths an undercover officer would have to go to ingratiate himself
with the types of people who deal in massive quantities of cocaine.

So while the RCMP are showing off the spoils of their undercover
operation, claiming they've 'made a huge dent against organized
crime,' we fear that may be far from the truth.

If you would believe the police forces across this country, who
routinely regale us with stories of the vast reach of organized crime
and the complex mechanisms the perpetrators have put in place to ply
their wares, this week's bust could be little more than a minor
inconvenience.

At some point the RCMP will have to acknowledge their own propaganda
that they've been putting out for years - if these motorcycle gangs
are everything they've been made out to be, the results of this week's
triumphant bust could represent just a drop in the bucket.