POLICE SUSPECT LINK BETWEEN MENNONITES AND HELLS ANGELS

It is difficult for many people to understand how people from Mennonite
churches and communities could have links with the Hells Angels biker gang
and other criminal groups.

A story published in the April issue of Saturday Night describes how some
people from the Old Colony Mennonite Church in Mexico are smuggling drugs
into Canada and how this involvement has escalated to organized network of
drug lords and alliances with criminal groups in other countries.

The story focuses mainly on police investigations in Leamington, Ontario
but states police suspect similar networks and alliances are forming and
operating in Western Canada.

Anne Froese, who is originally from the Manitoba Colony in Mexico and now
working in Steinbach, says the information and photographs in the story are
upsetting, but she is not surprised that drug smuggling has escalated to
contract killings and alliances with criminal gangs.

"The story hits home for me because it is happening in the community where
I grew up," she says.

"It makes me angry that it has come to this point--it is very sad and
frustrating. Something needs to be done."

Froese emphasizes most Mennonites living in Mexico are honest, hardworking,
God-fearing people but there are people who see drug trafficking as an easy
way to earn money.

Most people migrating to Canada or finding seasonal work in Canada are also
honest.

"My hope would be that the whole community is not branded as drug
smugglers," she says. "My hope would be that these people would not be
looked down upon but helped, encouraged and befriended."

Froese says the details in the story "are mostly accurate." People of all
ages are involved and finding creative ways to smuggle drugs across the
border to Canada and the United States.

Most people expect to make only one trip but before they know it they are
unintentionally drawn into the dangerous world of sophisticated and
elaborate drug trafficking networks.

Froese works at Die Mennonitische Post--a German language monthly newspaper
and book ministry that builds and strengthens linkages among people from
the Old Colony Church in North and Latin America.

She says some of the incidents reported in Saturday Day have been reported
in Die Mennonitische Post but readers generally want to hear positive
stories that build self-esteem.

"If it is something close to home it is very easy to deny these things,"
she says, adding the public exposure in Saturday Night magazine serves as
an "eye-opener" that more action is needed to resolve the problem.

Froese moved to Canada in 1980, about the same time Mennonites from Mexico
started smuggling marijuana to the United States and Canada.

Saturday Night reports by the late 1990s Old Colony Mennonites living in
Ontario and Mexico had cornered the market on the sale and distribution of
marijuana in Canada. Police estimate about 5,000 Mennonites in
South-western Ontario are involved in the drug trade and "their ranks swell
steadily every year."

The story states that since the turn of the millennium cocaine has become
the drug of choice and that "as easily as flipping a light switch, the
Mennonite cartels mobilized their existing drug-trafficking infrastructure
to smuggle and supply cocaine."

Police are now suspecting that alliances are being formed for the traffic
of methamphetamine, a highly addictive drug that is also known as meth,
crystal meth or poor man's cocaine.

Froese says most people don't know the names of the drugs they are
smuggling, usually referring to the drugs as the "weed" or the "white stuff".

"They are mainly the middle man for somebody else," she explains. "They
don't care what they bring here as long as it brings them money."

Mistrust police

For some, this involvement ends in drug related murders and revenge
killings. Froese used to think that contract killers were non-Mennonite
Mexicans but based on some of the things she has heard she now believes
Mennonites are capable of being contract killers.

"That's a very hurtful thought that it could have come that far," she says.

Steinbach RCMP Cpl. Bill Richards says the extent of the involvement of
Mennonite people in Manitoba is unknown because there is a general mistrust
of police and crime is not reported.

But there is evidence to support that Mennonite crime syndicates are
operating in Manitoba for the purpose of smuggling marijuana, cocaine and
meth into the country and firearms and other weapons out of the country.

Police have seized about a dozen firearms bound for Paraguay.

"It is difficult to stop--a lot of crime goes unreported," he says,
explaining people in close-knit Mennonite communities generally prefer to
deal with problems through their churches and counselling.

"My biggest concern is illegal immigration to Manitoba," says Richards.
"People are allowed to visit and then they stay."

Froese says in Mexico police can be bribed and drug lords have a powerful
influence on who will be spending time in jail and who will be released.
The maximum jail term in Mexico is 10 years. In Canada, it is not unusual
for people who are released on bail to flee to Mexico.

In Mexico, drug lords and drug smugglers are part of the church and the
community. Friends and neighbours suspect someone is involved in drugs when
families who don't have a known source of income build large houses, buy
new trucks, four-wheelers and television sets.

"They never to go work but they go to the States or Canada a couple times a
year. It is not that the neighbours know--they just guess this is what is
going on."

Church leaders, she adds, don't know how to deal with the problem.

"Some Old Colony churches will shun people for driving on rubber tires or
having electricity but I have never heard of a church shunning somebody for
being a drug dealer or a drug smuggler.

"But how do you prove it unless they are caught at the border and such a
small percentage are caught."

Addiction is also a growing problem in Mexico. Earlier this year a drug and
alcohol treatment centre opened on the Manitoba Colony. This centre, that
provides services in the Low German language, is a collaborative effort of
the Old Colony Church and other churches.

Froese says more severe penalties might deter some people from drug
trafficking but she believes that education is the best method of prevention.

She sees the potential to use Das Blatta monthly publication for elementary
school age children published by Die Mennonitische Post as one way of
making children more aware of the consequences of using and smuggling drugs.

Das Blatt is currently distributed in schools, reaching 5,000 children.

She would like to see this service expanded to include free distribution to
all homes but financial support is needed to make this project a reality.