Richmond Review · Page 3
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Anti-gang police publish first community report CFSEU unveils profile of murder victims, warning signs for parents by Jeff Nagel Black Press B.C.’s anti-gang police unit is taking a step out of the shadows and into the spotlight. The Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit (or CFSEU) is the integrated team of 400 officers and civilians from 14 different agencies, including RCMP and municipal police forces, that disrupt and suppress organized crime around the province. Their investigations have cracked big cases, such as the discovery of an audacious cross-border drugsmuggling tunnel in Aldergrove and the unraveling of a massive international money-laundering ring. The CFSEU is now out to capture a bigger public profile with the publication of its first-ever Community Report. The report can be read online at bc-anti-gang.com. Sgt. Lindsey Houghton said the aim is to make more people aware of the CFSEU and what it does. The initiative comes as the antigang force chalks up a major win – the arrest in February of three men in the murder of notorious gangster Jonathan Bacon, who was shot with four associates in 2011 outside a Kelowna casino. “Some people never thought that day would ever come,” Houghton said. “Or that the police would ever take something like that seriously. That was one of the watershed moments in the history of Kelowna.”
Sgt. Lindsey Houghton.
file photo
The Dover Park shootout was one of Richmond’s most notorious gang shootings.
Houghton said the report pulls together a broader picture of the CFSEU’s work than people see in daily news media coverage. “It seems like every couple of weeks or month we’ve got an interesting story to tell and this was one way for us to tell it,” he said. The report includes stories of officers tracking members of the Dhak/ Duhre crime group who make up one side of the ongoing bloody gang conflict in B.C. And it also releases intriguing findings on who is most likely to end up a victim of the gang violence that occasionally erupts in B.C. CFSEU researchers found the vast majority of gang-related murder victims over a four-year period had previous drug charges or convictions, and often violent criminal pasts. Most were gang members, not just associates or minor players in the drug trade, and a few were girlfriends or an innocent victim, like a man who was shot in Burnaby after picking up a Bacon brother vehicle to install a car stereo in it. B.C. gang-related killings peaked at 36 in 2009 before dropping to 18 last year. Victims are overwhelmingly men and their average age is 30, according to CFSEU stats. Three-quarters of bodies are found near the victims’ homes or vehicles.
Gangs have fingers in every community From dial-a-dope operators to sophisticated high-level organized crime, gang culture takes many different forms by Martin van den Hemel Staff Reporter Gang activity in Richmond reached its highest profile in January of 2007, during the Dover Park shootout in which gangsters sprayed more than 100 rounds at one another, ignoring the hundreds of residents living inside the condos and townhouses that line the park not far from the Richmond Olympic Oval. Though things have been relatively quiet ever since from a violence perspective, locals shouldn’t lull themselves into a false sense of security. Gangsters remain a problem. No community is immune to gang violence, said Sgt. Lindsey Houghton, of the Combined Forces Most (85 per cent) were shot, but eight per cent were viciously beaten, six per cent were stabbed and one victim was burned to death. Also included are key risk factors for ending up in a gang and tips for parents on spotting potential signs of gang involvement. Carrying multiple cellphones, having unexplained cash and making fre-
Special Enforcement Unit. With greed the motivating factor, and drug sales a main revenue stream, gangsters ignore civic boundaries. Richmond and the rest of the Lower Mainland and other larger communities outside the Metro Vancouver area can see anything from low-level diala-dope operations—where drug users can dial up a number left on a business card, and purchase their drugs almost anywhere at anytime—to high-level organized crime. Houghton said his unit’s initial community report, available at bc-anti-gang.com, outlines the risk factors for youth and young adults so parents and relatives can identify activities associated with gangsters. Noting the average age of victims involved in gang-related killings is 30, Houghton said police are trying to help turn people away from this life of crime. “We’d much rather encourage people to have that difficult conversation (with a family member) rather than arrange an obit in their local paper,” he said
quent brief trips out of the home are among the red flags. The report details how police try to keep gangsters out of bars and restaurants to keep them from recruiting new blood, as well as to prevent gang violence. This month the CFSEU said it will publicly identify suspected gangsters where possible as a new tactic
to make it more difficult for organized crime to operate. After a gang-related shooting outside a gym in South Surrey, senior officers are also pledging backup for businesses that make gangsters feel unwelcome in their premises. For more on the CFSEU, check out their website at cfseu.bc.ca. •See related story on page 5.
Program offers gang members a way out of the criminal lifestyle From Page 1 Some gangs are involved in extortions, exerting their influence on Richmond’s new immigrant population who are already accustomed to such activity in their homelands, and whose distrust of police in foreign jurisdictions makes them uncomfortable about calling for police assistance here. Javid has spoken to more than 30,000 people about the gang lifestyle in hopes of diverting them away from the tempting lucrative lifestyle that will likely just get them killed.
He said a recent community report by the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit was long overdue. At Touchstone Family Association, a program is offered to give gang members a way out of the criminal lifestyle. StreetSmarts Youth Leadership program is aimed at supporting youth who are at risk of gang involvement. Javid said Touchstone is really at the “forefront of being one of the only prevention and intervention program, for those involved and
transitioning out of gang activity.” Awareness of Touchstone’s program has increased significantly, he said, and he often gets provincial referrals into the program. According to Javid, large numbers of people are asking for a way out because they are seeing the consequences of a criminal lifestyle, their lives and that of friends and family are threatened, and they have debts to pay. Some want help having their tattoos removed, he said. Javid said a partnership with the B.C. Lions
has blossomed, with players serving as mentors for kids, giving them a pro-social experience. In 2011, Javid travelled to Hong Kong to research gang activity, and the link between gangs there and in Metro Vancouver. He said the Lower Mainland operates as a satellite office for organized crime groups in Hong Kong. And so although locals may not see local gang activity, it’s there for the trained eye to see.