POLICE RAID CRIPPLES GANG, FANTINO SAYS

Neighbourhood Residents Credited With Helping Target the Malvern Crew

Community members who were once reluctant or afraid to speak with police
about crime in their neighbourhood came forward with enough information to
help authorities assemble one of the largest anti-gang operations in the
history of Ontario, police said yesterday.

Hundreds of officers on the Project Impact task force arrested as many as
65 people across the GTA and Barrie in predawn raids yesterday, disbanding
a violent Scarborough-based gang called the Malvern Crew, Toronto Police
Chief Julian Fantino announced yesterday.

"I feel very confident we have dismantled a very significant street gang
operation in this city and beyond," Chief Fantino said at a press
conference at police headquarters, just hours after the raids took place.

Police say the Malvern Crew has been operating for several years and that
its members have been involved in everything from drug trafficking to
shootings.

More than 500 charges have been laid in the operation so far, and over the
past month 28 guns and various drugs including cocaine, ecstasy and hashish
were seized, police say.

Most importantly, however, police say they were able to arrest 15 people
they believe were in the upper echelons of the gang and who were managing
its activities.

"I think we have been very successful in disrupting this organization and
taking the parts down so it will be extremely difficult for them to operate
as they have been operating," said Staff Superintendent Bill Blair, who
oversaw the officers on the project.

He said officers used a new section of the Criminal Code, initially
established to fight biker gangs, to help take down the leaders of the
Malvern Crew, who may not have been carrying drugs themselves, but who are
alleged to have been orchestrating the group's activities.

Police did not name the people charged yesterday, but said more information
will be released in the days to come. Everyone arrested in the raids will
be prosecuted at Scarborough Court by a team of three prosecutors, police said.

While the implementation of the new portion of the code was an important
element of the investigation, Staff-Supt. Blair said one of the key
components in the 14-month investigation was the information and assistance
from the members of Malvern, a community he said has been "under siege."

Of 19 killings this year, eight have taken place Scarborough.

Malvern -- an area of Scarborough around Neilson Road south of Finch Avenue
- -- was listed as an at-risk neighbourhood in Mayor David Miller's community
safety plan.

Staff-Supt. Blair said co-operation did not come right away, however, and
that it took a great deal of work by police officers to give people the
confidence to come forward. "It's all about trust and confidence, and the
community has to trust that we will do the right thing and that we are
truly committed," he said during a phone interview last night.

"You don't get that trust as a right, you have to earn it," he said.

Scarborough Centre councillor Michael Thompson said he, too, has seen a
shift among people in the community, and said even some gang members have
approached him in the last few months with information.

"People are getting killed. They recognize it, and many of them are
afraid," Mr. Thompson said. "It's a mean street out there. . .They are
looking at ways to extricate themselves from that environment."

When asked about the arrests, Mayor Miller said he thinks it is "very good
news for the city."

While he applauded the police, however, he added a warning, saying "the
next challenge is ensuring that by taking out this gang that nobody moves
into the vacuum."

"The police service has a real role in the next few months in keeping the
peace," he said.