COPS' MOB SQUAD POISED TO SWOOP

61-Member Elite Squad Targets Organized Crime

Sixty-one elite cops are set to launch a major offensive against
organized crime in Alberta.

And the drug trade will be among their first targets.

Insp. Joe Loran - the cop in charge of the new Integrated Response to
Organized Crime corps, or IROC - said the unit is now ready to dig
into organized crime groups across the province.

"We will be dedicated to dismantling and disrupting organized crime,"
says Loran, a taciturn 25-year RCMP veteran.

"Our focus will be on the criminal organization and all the criminal
activities they are involved in, including drugs, market manipulation,
money laundering, counterfeit credit cards, auto theft, shipment of
contraband such as cigarettes, prostitution, extortion, weapons and
illegal gaming."

The IROC unit has four teams; two will operate out of Calgary and two
out of Edmonton.

It is modelled on similar units in Toronto, British Columbia and
Quebec, including the biker enforcement unit of the Ontario Provincial
Police.

The idea is that a special police unit - backed up by forensic
accountants and other experts - can zero in on a crime group and
conduct long-term investigations anywhere in the province.

A team of officers can focus on rooting out criminals rather than
worry about police jurisdiction and administrative wrangling, says Ian
Cameron, director of the Criminal Intelligence Service of Alberta.

Until now, police services operated independently to catch gang
members, often duplicating each other's work. When gang members moved
to another city, there was no formal system to track them.

"It will allow them to follow the crime groups. They will be able to
maintain their focus, check on spinoffs, and follow it to its ultimate
conclusion. It will be a significant improvement," Cameron says.

"We direct our resources where we will get the best bang for the buck
- - who is causing the most significant threat to the province?"

The drug trade and the money and property crime it generates will be a
top priority, with an increasing number of marijuana grow operations
in Alberta and the methamphetamine trade flourishing.

"Marijuana is a huge business in Alberta. It is millions and millions
of dollars," Cameron says.

"Methamphetamine bothers me the most. The absolute damage and control
it has over the people who are addicted, it is a dastardly drug to
have to combat."

But organized crime of all types is also growing, Mounties say,
describing it as a multibillion-dollar business across Canada.

In Alberta police have identified about two dozen groups operating in
the province, including aboriginal gangs, Asian gangs and outlaw
motorcycle clubs such as the Hells Angels. There are also eastern
European and Indo-Canadian gangs.

"They are all a scourge on our society. There are a greater number of
groups," Loran says. "Part of that can be correlated to the Alberta
economy. They follow the money."