POLICE AIM AT GANGS, GUNS AND METH LABS

$12 Million War Chest

HAMILTON--The guns and gangs strategy started in Toronto last year is
being expanded throughout the Greater Toronto Area and beyond with $12
million in funding, Premier Dalton McGuinty said yesterday.

Police are to use half the money to target the illegal gun trade and
gangs. The rest will go to shutting down crystal methamphetamine labs,
expanding the Ontario Provincial Police unit that seizes illegal gains
from criminal organizations, and boosting intelligence gathering on
gang members, among other things.

Hamilton, for example, will get five more police officers with its
share of the new funding.

"If young people make the wrong choices, if they pick up a gun, if
they join a gang, then we'll be there with the full force of the law,"
McGuinty told a news conference at the Hamilton police station.

Sharing in the guns-and-gangs funding will be police forces in York,
Durham, Peel, Halton, Hamilton, Niagara, Brantford, Waterloo, London,
Ottawa, the Windsor area, Kenora and Thunder Bay.

As part of a $2 million crackdown on crystal meth, Ontario's fire
marshal will get more resources to investigate suspicious fires and
explosions likely caused by drug labs -- six of which have been taken
down in Ontario in the last year.

Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory said it's about time
McGuinty took action because police outside Toronto have been asking
for more help on these fronts for months.

"Where has he been?" Tory said at a Queen's Park news conference. "All
of a sudden, now when crime is back on the agenda ... he's suddenly
running around making the announcements."

York Region Police Chief Armand La Barge said he's pleased to get the
extra funding because his municipality is being victimized by gangs
from Toronto and elsewhere.

"We're often victimized by gangs coming in from outside ... Some of
these gangs are a little bit more mobile than they have been in years
past," he said in an interview, noting the problem requires more
communication with neighbouring police forces.

"The borders in many respects have disappeared between us and Toronto
police, and between us and Durham."

Last year, McGuinty announced $51 million to fight guns and gangs.