ORGANIZED CRIME SPREADING AND MERGING, REPORT WARNS

HALIFAX -- Organized crime groups are extending their reach across
Canada by merging with other outlaw gangs, using more sophisticated
technology to conduct fraud and expanding lucrative marijuana grow
operations, says a new intelligence report.

Mobs and biker gangs continue to rank as the most active criminal
organizations as they move into high-tech money-laundering pursuits
and increase their involvement in illicit marijuana cultivation, says
the document prepared by Criminal Intelligence Service Canada.

"The highest level of criminal organizations are involved in this and
there are huge amounts of money being made," RCMP Commissioner
Giuliano Zaccardelli said yesterday after releasing the report in Halifax.

The lure of large profits from marijuana is attracting a widening
array of groups, setting off violent turf wars and increasing the
danger to police called in to investigate sites, one official said.

Regions across the country are finding grow operations expanding into
both rural and urban areas, creating threats for residential
neighbourhoods that sometimes get caught in the middle of police
standoffs or disputes between rival gangs, the report says.

Vulnerability The report also highlighted the vulnerability of ports
and how biker gangs and mob associations continue to use ports to
import drugs, firearms, luxury cars and other contraband.

But Yves Lavigne, an expert in biker organizations, said the perceived
threat at ports is overblown, adding the police have arrested very few
members of the Hells Angels or other gang members for port-related
offences.

"The message in this report is that the police are failing to stop the
growth in any way of organized crime and what needs to be done is a
total overhaul of how law enforcement operates against organized
crime," Lavigne said in an interview from Toronto.