Drug cartels in canada

I don't want to sound alarmist.... ok maybe I do.

Chief Mountain border crossing, 1950's

What is Canada's future especially in the small towns and border regions that are not well patrolled?

We have seen a drug war to the south that has involved hundreds of thousands of people, governments, police and military.  The American and Mexican border has produced violence that is almost unheard of outside of war zones.  Money flows across the border, drugs flow north and weapons flow from the American populace to the people of Mexico.

As the war in Mexico heats up what are the options for the people of Canada?

Are we to see violence like that in south?

This report from CBC showcases the fear that the RCMP feels about the potential of drug violence in Canada.

CBC- Kamloops   "Dozens of homes and businesses in Kamloops, B.C., have been evacuated as police investigate three suspicious objects found near a downtown building on Saturday morning.

Mounties have found what they call three "items of concern" near the Scotiabank building at 3rd Avenue and Victoria Street — one of which is believed to be leaning against a natural gas meter.  RCMP Const. Rose Dunsmore said the RCMP's bomb squad is flying to Kamloops from the Lower Mainland to assist in the investigation.  Dunsmore said police have cordoned off and evacuated a three-block radius, from 1st Avenue to 3rd avenue and Landsdowne to Seymour streets.  "We do have Terasen [a natural gas distributor in B.C.] gas [officials] on scene as well. They have managed to shut off gas to that particular building and we're still looking at making sure that area stays clear of any kind of public individuals here," she said.

"We want to make sure everyone just stays out of that area in the interest of public safety."

The general public is advised to avoid the area until police determine whether any of the packages pose a threat.  Dunsmore said one long, closed-off pipe was found leaning against the building's gas meter. In the immediate vicinity, police also found a case with wires coming out of it and another carrying case.  Kamloops is in B.C.'s southern Interior, about 250 kilometres northeast of Vancouver."

So why Canada?

Is ripe for the picking...

An open border that is not well defended due to its size and history.....

Border crossing in BC

Transportation networks that rival Europe's.....

A police system that is small.....

A government that isn't corrupt but that can be corrupted....
A weapon supply system that has no federal over site and thus allows very easy access to high caliber weapons of incredible destruction (IE not hunting).

Cartel weapon seizure, Mexico

Drug groups that are ill defined, mainly bikers, Chinese mafia, Italian mafia, Vietnamese mafia, native groups, all controlling vast areas an networks but not from the grower to the seller..... to the businessman that is an open opportunity....

there is an immigrant population that can be easily controlled through the people they leave at home...  (lets not worry about Sri Lankan immigrants the real worry is South and central Americans..... but that doesn't mean stopping them it means helping them.

Money corrupts as power corrupts....

We are in a position to control what happens next.

Small packages laying next to a gas main in Kamloops means something different than it does in Edmonton or Yellowknife.

All this can be stopped. but we must dig deep to find the will to do so.

"Already this year in the Vancouver area – nicknamed the gang capital of Canada – there have been 30 shootings (with 12 fatalities) directly linked to the gang shakeout in Mexico and tracked by the Washington-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs. Some 130 gangs operate in B.C., among them Red Scorpions, United Nations, MS-13, Bacon Brothers, Hells Angels and various independents – all with ties of varying degrees to lucrative Mexican cocaine, among other drugs from other places. 

"Vancouver and British Columbia are unfortunately the focus of the largest number of organized crime groups in Canada," warned Peter Van Loan, federal public safety minister and solicitor-general, in a speech in Langley this year. A few days earlier, a gangster died nearby in a Mexican-style execution by machine-gun fire at the Thunderbird Village Mall.

In Mexico, where nearly 11,000 have died since Mexican President Felipe Calderón launched his government's "war on drugs" in 2006, drug-fuelled gangs impale heads on stakes and dissolve thousands of corpses in acid.  

In Tijuana, a border town almost due south down the I-5 from Vancouver, there are three, maybe four drug murders a day and cartel henchmen take down local cops for sport.

In Vancouver, police are witnessing an escalation in the brutality of killings. Recently, in an apparently targeted hit, a gangster shot a young mother in her car as her 4-year-old sat in the back seat. Once, such actions were forbidden by established drug protocol. Now, collateral damage is routine in the slaughterhouse of gangland hits." Already this year in the Vancouver area – nicknamed the gang capital of Canada – there have been 30 shootings (with 12 fatalities) directly linked to the gang shakeout in Mexico and tracked by the Washington-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs. Some 130 gangs operate in B.C., among them Red Scorpions, United Nations, MS-13, Bacon Brothers, Hells Angels and various independents – all with ties of varying degrees to lucrative Mexican cocaine, among other drugs from other places.  "Vancouver and British Columbia are unfortunately the focus of the largest number of organized crime groups in Canada," warned Peter Van Loan, federal public safety minister and solicitor-general, in a speech in Langley this year. A few days earlier, a gangster died nearby in a Mexican-style execution by machine-gun fire at the Thunderbird Village Mall.

In Mexico, where nearly 11,000 have died since Mexican President Felipe Calderón launched his government's "war on drugs" in 2006, drug-fuelled gangs impale heads on stakes and dissolve thousands of corpses in acid."  Linda Diebel,   The Star, National Affairs Writer

Lets support the RCMP/ OPP/ SQ and anything they need....

Manpower...

Equipment...

Motivational support....

Criminal justice support....

Lets ensure that any money going to candidates in anything from city, provincial to federal elections is open and exposed...

Any signs of corruption are looked at in a fair an open manner...

Immigrant populations from places like South and Central American populations need to be helped and integrated into the Canadian population (this doesn't mean the end of multi culture ism but there should be a worry about being too PC).  These immigrants are used in the lower mainland and in the fruit picking populations of the interior of BC, Grape production areas of Niagara and all across the border.  Help them become Canadians and they will in the end embrace the Canadian ideals.  We have seen it in the past be it Poles, Ukrainians, Germans, Norwegian, Icelandic, free slaves from the US, Brits or Irish, they all work well in Canadian society all we need to do is give everyone a chance.  We don't want to follow into the hatrted and extremism that our neighbours to the shows have seen and will see in the 2012 election cycle.

Reality in the new American Park system

So a simple report of a package found in Kamloops can mean more than we think; make sure we think it all through...

VANCOUVER - Three B.C. men and one Mexican national have been charged in a sophisticated cocaine smuggling operation which police say is linked to a Mexican cartel.

Almost 100 kilos of cocaine were discovered Sept. 22 by inspectors with the Canada Border Services Agency; the drugs were hidden in a fruit-grinding machine imported from Argentina and destined for Kelowna.  

The RCMP's Federal Drug Enforcement Branch was called in and allowed the machine, minus the illicit stash, to carry on to its destination.  

On Oct. 4, West Kelowna residents Clifford Roger Montgomery, 33, and Barry Michael Ready, 50, were arrested and charged with two counts of conspiracy to import cocaine and one count of possession for the purpose of trafficking.  

Both are still in custody and due back in court Oct. 18.  

Also charged are Surrey's Tariq Mohammed Aslam, 32, and Mexico's Victor Perez Rodrigues, 43. Warrants have been issued for their arrest.

Supt. Brian Cantera, who heads the drug enforcement branch, said the cocaine is worth millions.  

"This investigation translates into more than 97,000 doses of cocaine, or between $3.5 million and $3.9 million in drugs, that will never lead to addiction, violent behaviour, heart or lung problems, or an overdose or drug-related death," he said.  

More than 50 investigators from the RCMP, the Gang Task Force, the Integrated Border Enforcement Team and other agencies and detachments worked on the case.  

It is the second time in a week that a Mexican believed to be linked to one of the country's deadly cartels has been charged in B.C. in connection with a major cocaine shipment.

Last week, Eduardo Gonzalez, 32, was charged along with two Vancouver men after the CBSA uncovered 275 kilos of cocaine, meth and ecstasy baked into paving stones and decorative garden fountains. The $9-million shipment arrived in containers from Mexico destined for a Vancouver business linked to one of the accused.

Cantera said there is no evidence the two massive loads are connected, but there are links generally between Canadian drug traffickers and Mexican cartels.  

"There does appear to be interconnectivity between B.C. criminals and those in Mexico," he said.  

Cantera said the B.C. men charged are "well-known to police." But he said it is too early in the investigation to say if there was a specific named gang or criminal organization tied to either coke shipment.

Court records show that Ready has no charges or convictions in B.C. whereas Alsam and Montgomery have long histories with the legal system.   

In 1995 in Surrey, Alsam was convicted of arson causing damage to property, possession of a weapon and robbery. He was sentenced to three months in jail. He was convicted in 2005 of possession of pot for the purpose of trafficking after being stopped in Vancouver with 200 pounds of marijuana and a paper with delivery instructions. He got a two-year jail sentence.

Montgomery has 42 entries in the online Provincial Court database going back to 1997. Many are traffic violations, but he also has convictions in Delta, Surrey and Langley for a variety of offences, including break and enter, possession of stolen property and uttering threats.  

Cantera said his agency is also working with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and partners in Mexico and Argentina on the case.

kbolan@vancouversun.com

Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan - Beneath the streets of Moose Jaw lies an extensive network of tunnels, constructed in the late 1800's and early 1900's so that building staff could move from one building to another keeping furnaces going, without having to go outdoors in the frigid winter weather. Eventually Chinese migrants lived and worked in the tunnels, providing cheap labour while existing in a sad state as the city’s subterranean society. Then along came prohibition. Canada quit it long before the U.S. and Moose Jaw became a hub for rumrunners and gangsters. This is the period Al Capone is said to have spent time here, and although there were several reports by people who said they saw him, no photographs or documentation exists. Still, the city now capitalizes on this era with two tours of the tunnels, on focusing on the Chinese history and the other on the more colourful Capone connection. Photo of Al Capone & Attorney courtesy of Moosejaw Tunnels.

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