GANG SLAYINGS PLAGUE VANCOUVER REGION

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - The killings were brazen, often carried
out execution-style, police said.

The most famous case involved a masked man who walked up to a
notorious drug dealer on a dance floor and fired a bullet into his
head behind the ear.

The dealer dropped to the crowded floor. Witnesses told police that
they saw nothing.

In the past 13 years, police have reported 76 young men killed in the
Vancouver area in gang-related violence. The authorities blame drug
deals gone bad and local turf wars, mostly involving well-to-do young
people of Indian descent.

Immigrant leaders in Vancouver complain of police inaction. Police say
they have tried, but have been unable to develop leads that would stop
the bloodshed.

"They are Indo-Canadians killing Indo-Canadians," said Kash Heed,
commanding officer of the 3rd Police District in Vancouver.
"Seventy-six murders . . . mainly within one ethnic group. The cycle
of violence, we've not cracked it yet."

Canadians are not accustomed to seeing widespread gun violence at
home. Canada, with strict firearms laws, has lower levels of such
crimes than does the United States. According to the government's
Canada Firearms Center, the rate of murders committed with firearms in
2001 was 6.5 times as high in the United States as in Canada.

'Upset and Worried'

"The community is quite upset and worried about this violence and
killing," said Balwant Singh Gill, president of the Guru Nanak Sikh
Gurdwara, one of the largest Sikh temples in North America, with
37,000 members.

"The laws of this land are lenient," Gill said. "Only a few of the
murders have been solved." Gill said he has been threatened with
violence, apparently by gang members, because he has spoken out
against their activity. In one incident, shots were fired at his
house. Police confirmed the threats against him.

The gangs deal mostly in marijuana, police say, and specialize in a
popular variety grown in the province called "B.C. bud."

"B.C. bud marijuana is highly sought after in the United States,"
said constable Alex Borden of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. "It
is often exchanged for cocaine, cash or firearms. It is a deal between
two criminal gangs, one on the south side of the border and one on the
north side, guns for marijuana," Borden said.

In Blaine, Wash., Joe Giuliano, assistant chief at the local U.S.
Border Patrol office, said 23 Canadian smugglers had been arrested on
the U.S. side of the border this year. "Virtually all marijuana
smuggling in the past fiscal year is either directly or indirectly
tied back to the Indo-Canadian community," Giuliano said.

Police Draw Fire

Amar Randhawa, 28, co-founder of UNITED, the Unified Network of
Indo-Canadians for Togetherness and Education Through Discussion, said
Canadian police have not been aggressive enough in tracking down leads
to stop the killings. "Out here, it's a slap on the hand," Randhawa
said. "Law enforcement can't crack the lower hierarchy, let alone get
to the top."

Randhawa said he knew many of the victims and killers, and a number of
them attended high school together. "Their background is Punjab
Sikhs, ranging in age from 18 to 35," Randhawa said.

Police describe the problem as a closed cycle of murder and
revenge.

"One day suspect, and the next day victim," said Heed, the police
commander. "One day you are the shooter. The next day you're lying in
your coffin."

The gang members are often from well-off families, local leaders and
officials said. "Unlike in other countries, people involved in the
gang activity here are not the poor or disadvantaged," said Wallace
T. Oppal, a justice of the Court of Appeal of British Columbia. "For
the most part, kids involved here are people who come from
middle-class and upper-class homes. They get involved for the glamour."

Oppal said parental neglect is sometimes a factor. "Parents are
devoted to not only buying the first home, but the second home and
third home," he said from his chambers. "They provide their children
with the means, but not the guidance."