CITY'S STREET GANGS STEPPING UP

On Par With Organized Crime, Cops Say. Problem Spreads Across, And
Beyond, Island

Montreal street gangs have cemented their place on the city's
criminal landscape by forming alliances with the Mafia and the Hells Angels.

The street gangs have become better organized and so sophisticated in
their criminal dealings they can be compared to other major criminal
organizations that have operated in the city for years, police said yesterday.

"You can compare them to the bikers and other criminal
organizations," Mario Plante, the Montreal police assistant director
in charge of special squads, told reporters at a briefing.

"I know some of them are working together. The main goal is to make
money, and if they can do that by forming alliances, that's what they will do."

The gangs now have their own businesses and are involved in money
laundering, he said. They are also implicated in drug trafficking,
prostitution and fraud.

The fight against street gangs remains the force's top priority,
Plante said, acknowledging the gangs are recruiting boys as young as 10 and 11.

Between January and May, police seized 47 firearms while executing
117 search warrants across Montreal in a crackdown on street gangs.

During the same period, police made 764 gang-related arrests,
including arresting 128 minors, for crimes ranging from violating
parole to murder.

Montreal has 20 established street gangs and 30 emerging gangs with a
total of between 350 and 500 members.

Ten of the 17 homicides reported on Montreal Island in 2007 have been
linked to street gangs. At the same time last year, eight of 18
homicides were tied to street-gang activity.

Police have solved four of the 10 homicides linked to street gangs
this year and have good leads in the six others.

While there was a rash of gang-related homicides during the first two
months of this year, there have been none since Feb. 25, Plante said.
Many of the killings were the result of internal disputes or personal
rivalries between gang members, not conflicts between rival gangs
fighting for drug turf.

Over the past several years, street gangs have been very active in
Haitian communities in St. Michel and Montreal North. But the problem
is spreading across the island, particularly in the west end, and to
off-island cities such as Laval and Longueuil.

In September, Montreal police received initial funds from $6 million
budgeted over three years to help them fight street gangs. The police
force has asked Quebec's Public Security Department for more money to
finance enforcement efforts and expand prevention programs.

Apart from using raids and arrests, police must maintain prevention
programs they have started in schools and community centres in
gang-plagued areas, said Pierreson Vaval, director of Equipe R.D.P.,
a community organization in Riviere des Prairies that works to keep
teenagers out of street gangs.

Police say they are doing just that. Since January, they met with
45,000 students, 7,600 parents and almost 2,000 school employees to
warn them about street gangs.

The force has also decided against referring to street gangs by their
names and will no longer release pictures of street gang members to
the media after an arrest, because the gangs love the publicity that garners.

Plante said police can't solve the street-gang problem on their own.
They need help from the public, who can call in gang-related tips
anonymously by phoning Info-Crime at 514-393-1133.