TORONTO GLOBE&MAIL

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA

B.C. gangsters are showing up far from home this week - a reminder that organized crime continues to be one of the province's exports, analysts say.

In Edmonton, police are looking for members of the Independent Soldiers gang, a multicultural operation with roots in the Lower Mainland that has previously made its mark in Kelowna and Calgary.

CTV News reported that the alleged head of a rival group, called the UN Gang, has been arrested in Texas and will face an indictment out of Seattle that could result in a jail sentence of more than 200 years.

Gang experts said yesterday they were not surprised by the migration of B.C. gangsters beyond the province.

The task force was created in 2005 to crack down on gang activity. B.C. is thought to be home to an estimated 129 of the 800 criminal organizations operating in Canada - nebulous groups of varying sizes and structures.

In Edmonton this week, police linked firearms, including a loaded 9 mm handgun and AR-15 assault rifle, drugs and $8,000 in cash seized in raids on a home in the city, to members of the Independent Soldiers and said they were looking for three suspects.

Two of them turned themselves in yesterday. The third is described as a member of the onetime Indo-Canadian gang, which has evolved into a multiracial group involved in gun and cocaine trafficking.

Constable Todd Jones of the Edmonton Police Service said police have been receiving information for the past year about the Independent Soldiers operating in the city, trafficking cocaine. He said there have been "snippets" of intelligence about the B.C.-based UN Gang at work in Edmonton as well.

He said police are worried about competition among the gangs leading to violence.

"Cocaine trafficking combined with weapons and guns and competition is a recipe for violence in the community," he said.

They also see the booming Alberta economy as providing criminals a shot at "opportunistic money-making."

As Edmonton police are carrying on their hunt, Clayton Roueche, described as the head of the UN Gang, was taken into custody on Monday in Texas and is to be returned to Seattle.

CTV News reported that the Abbotsford resident has been indicted in Washington State for conspiracy to distribute and export cocaine, conspiracy to import marijuana and conspiracy to engage in money laundering as part of an international operation. The maximum sentence for a conviction on the charges would be up to 220 years and millions of dollars in fines.

Police have linked the UN Gang to a number of Vancouver-area shootings, part of a recent wave of gangland violence in the region.

Sgt. Kirk declined to get into details about gang migration, but said some groups are definitely chasing market opportunities elsewhere.

In some cases, he said, gangsters in other provinces will adopt the name of the particular B.C. gang. "I hate to put it in such terms, but it's almost like a franchise operation."

Inspector Dennis Fiorido is the bureau manager of the Criminal Intelligence Service of B.C. and the Yukon. The service focuses on exchanging criminal intelligence among Canadian police forces, working through 10 provincial bureaus. Its membership includes 380 law-enforcement agencies across Canada.

Insp. Fiorido agrees that the migration is inevitable.

"It's all part of their desire to increase their criminal wealth, and criminal scope of activity," he said. "If a group has reached a degree of sophistication and thinks it can be successful outside their backyard, they're going to expand."

Should the public worry?

"There's always a risk of violence when you have people desperate to perpetrate their criminal enterprise," Insp. Fiorido said.

But Sgt. Kirk said police forces across the continent are not in their bunkers on the issue, but sharing information and best-practices ideas.

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