Article from the Vancouver Sun :
Bursts of activity put spotlight on certain gangs
Groups change, but power struggles still over drugs, expert says
Earlier this decade, all the headlines about gangs seemed to focus on the old-school veterans: the Hells Angels.
Then, a few years back, they told the tale of dozens of upstart Indo-Canadian men killing each other in Metro Vancouver.
Now those in the media spotlight appear to be mostly young, suburban gangsters involved in public shootings.
The common denominator throughout has been the illicit drug industry, but have the players evolved as the headlines would suggest?
Not really, argues Robert Gordon, director of the criminology department at Simon Fraser University. All these groups have been, and continue to be, key players in B. C.’ s booming drug trade.
There are just “ bursts” of activity by certain players at certain times because of behind-thescenes disputes, Gordon says.
What’s happening now — nine people shot in 11 days in Metro Vancouver — echoes events in the fall of 2007, when 10 people were shot dead during a month of gangland mayhem. It is also reminiscent of 2005, when a spate of targeted killings brought to 60 the body count of IndoCanadian men.
Each burst of action is frightening and worrisome, but not necessarily an indication of new groups in the drug scene, Gordon said.
For the past 15 or so years, biker gangs such as the Hells Angels have largely provided the financing and security for drug operations, he said. Less organized individuals and organizations, some of them Vietnamese, specialized in growing or cooking the drugs.
A third group controlled the distribution of drugs and the collection of money. Among this group were some of the IndoCanadians slain earlier this decade and the young suburban men in the news today, Gordon said.
There have been theories about some of the Indo-Canadian men being torn between traditional culture and modern-day society. But such conflicts likely are not factors with many of the Fraser Valley men involved in recent shootings. Three brothers at the centre of the news recently, the Bacons of Abbotsford, come from an attractive home where both parents have middleclass jobs.
In fact, Gordon argues, these brothers are not members of a “ street gang.” Their lifestyle can only be described as belonging to members of lucrative organized crime.
The reasons the Bacons and their affiliates are embroiled in a public war that has seen bullets flying across mall parking lots and crowded intersections could be varied.
But one distinct possibility, Gordon said, is that the mighty Hells Angels have been wounded by recent police busts. Therefore, their former partners are b e c o m i n g c o m p e t i t o r s by expanding beyond the distribution of drugs into production.
“ The dilution of the power of the Hells Angels ... upsets the power balance within this industry,” Gordon said.
“ The current situation here is probably some sort of major disruption, a primary push for market share for one or more groups, and they are thrashing it out.”
When the death toll of IndoCanadian men climbed to 60 a few years back, community leaders and South Asian politicians spoke out, demanding the violence stop. That might have stopped some from entering gangs, Gordon said, but likely didn’t convince many entrenched gangsters — already addicted to the money — to leave.
Meanwhile, Solicitor-General John van Dongen announced Friday the province is putting new money into programs to deter youth from joining gangs and to spread the message that membership means they may not “ live to their 30th birthday.”
“ I’m advised that some of the more traditional, well-established gangs are still involved,” van Dongen, who is also the MLA for Abbotsford, said in an interview with The Vancouver Sun. “ They are just further in the background.
“ And some of the newer gangs, you are seeing them more on the front line and hence, they are more visible, in terms of the turf wars and the shootings,” he said.
“ Some of these young guys grew up in our own community and in our own schools, and it is very sad to talk to people who knew them as kids and everything seemed like a normal situation, and then they fell into the trap of getting into gangs.”
Abbotsford Mayor George Peary said city police have cameras on the Bacon family home — where two of the sons must continue to live to abide by bail conditions — and officers are stationed out front to follow the brothers in their vehicles.
Peary said he has sought advice from the City of Surrey, where much of the Indo-Canadian violence has played out, and is setting up a crime-reduction task force in Abbotsford. Part of the goal is to strengthen Block Watch and citizen parole programs, and to better inform residents about the goings-on in communities.
The Bacon brothers are linked to the Red Scorpions gang, and Peary said he knows of local men involved in at least two other gangs, all of which started out small but graduated into the “ big leagues” of exporting drugs.
“ It is all about drugs and powers and weapons and money, and they are carving out their turf and trying to settle scores,” he said.
SFU’s Gordon said the efforts of municipalities like Abbotsford, and stepped measures such those announced Friday by the police and the provincial government, are well intentioned.
But Gordon, a former RCMP officer, argues B. C. needs an organized crime agency with more resources and more staff to target gangs. There are about 120 organized crime groups in the province right now, and police estimate they have only enough manpower to properly track about five of them, Gordon said.
