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B.C. is Now a "World Crime Superpower"
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by Barry Artiste | May 20, 2008 at 10:25 am
1263 views | 26 Recommendations | 22 comments
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You know, I was tempted to include my No Shit Sherlock Photo into this story, but decided against it, as it is far from humorous.
With Attorney General Wally Oppal, our Head Judge announcing this week on February 16, 2009 that his department will be laying off 100 staffers in the prosecutors office speaks volumes on the British Columbia's when they spout useless rhetoric in their obvious flaccid response in fighting crime! What with seems like a gangland hit a week, certainly stinks in Wally Ministry! Time for some splain'in Lucy! Time to give Wally the Heave Ho as well, as many citizens are screaming mad with BCs Revolving Door Justice.
British Columbia's new Title as a World Crime Superpower is nothing to be proud of and certainly speaks volumes of our Government Leadership and Ineffective Justice System in this province who have allowed the criminal enterprise to propagate, just in time for the 2010 Olympics, and we wonder why security for the Olympics once estimated a scant year ago at a 140 million is now close to a Billion dollars of taxpayers money!
Many on Now Public had read my countless articles on this issue of an ineffective Justice Systems catch and release programs and a government who throws money to police to stop it. Police may catch the criminals, but it is the incompetent BC Courts, Judges and Justice system which releases the Criminals back onto the streets faster than the Police can arrest them again, and again and again.
Is it any wonder frustrated Police Officers lose it, and beat the crap out of repeat criminals, when the Officers know their efforts are for nothing. Officers are meant to protect us, but cannot if the Justice system releases criminals back into society to do us harm.
One aspect of an ineffective Justice System will be citizens taking Vigilante Justice into their own hands, resulting in more lawlessness. Presnetly we are known in Law Enforcement Circle North American wide as the "True Wild West of Lawlessness".
Surrey BC, for instance is North America's Number #1 Car Theft Capital.
Surrey also has terrorist elements who have threatened the Mayor over her disapproval over their Terrorist Bent.
Only in British Columbia has this resulted in No Action against this well known group deemed terrorist ties by our Federal Government. One wonders if this same Terrorist Organization were living in the USA and made similar life threats against any American Mayor or Bureaucrat, that the entire US military and Law Enforcement community would not immediately swoop down upon them, and make them disappear permanently.
Only British Columbia deserves the Distinction of "Nancy British Columbia."
Miami, once the crime capital of the world, was a mecca of criminal cocaine activity, an activity which saw drug money building a city to unimaginable proportions as Criminal Organizations had no way to launder their drug money without getting the attention of a watchful US government, this pumped their Drug Money amounting to Billions of dollars into construction projects and new businesses at every street corner, while politicians knew the deal, looked the other way.
Anyone who lives in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland can certainly see the Miami similarities of money infusion into cities in the lower mainland, unlimited construction projects at every turn. People, especially those new to Canada with no appreciable amount of employment income living beyond their means in 1 million dollar homes, Does this not strike anyone as unusual?
Of course it seems Realtors have no problem in accepting Cash offers, no questions asked. I wonder of anyone else but criminals have that much walking around money?
Our Ports have dock workers ranging from Hell's Angels to other criminal elements, yet when the Government wanted to perform Security and Criminal Background checks on people employed in our Ports offloading cargo, the Union protested and the Government backed down.
I see it everyday in my profession and wonder if Politicians of every level are Blind, or just not caring about the Criminal activity in this province.
One video, one should rent is "Cocaine Cowboys", how Miami came to be because of the influx of Drug money and make a comparison and see how Vancouver is faring as Miami's equal.
Certainly when Politicians state that British Columbia, in particular "Vancouver is the Best place in the World to live". They are certainly correct from a Criminal's Perspective!
And when 2010 Olympics hit this Province, it is only going to get worse People, cause after the Olympics those Criminal organizations who visit here, will look at our Non existent court and justice system, and will decide to make British Columbia their home base, it will be far worse than you can imagine! Mark my words!
How B.C. became a world crime superpower16/05/2008 5:15:20 PM
By JASON KIRBY AND NANCY MACDONALD
Forget forestry or fishing. B.C.'s big, multi-billion-dollar growth industry is crime. And business is booming.By almost any measure it was a thriving enterprise, with subsidiaries in eight countries and a flourishing distribution business. Even more impressive, it was run out of Vancouver, a city that's seen many head offices disappear over the years. And with its strong sales, the venture would easily have been considered one of British Columbia's largest private companies. That is, if the operation at the heart of it all wasn't a criminal syndicate trading in marijuana, cocaine, heroin, guns and real estate.
In December, officers from the RCMP and Vancouver Police Department showed off the results of a 14-month investigation called Project E-Paragon. Working with police in the U.S. and Australia, officers seized $168 million worth of drugs, along with luxury homes, exotic vehicles, millions in cash and weapons. More than 100 people were arrested worldwide, including the alleged ringleader, 50-year-old Yong Long Ye of Vancouver. The allegations regarding the crime ring have not been proven in court, but police believe they've broken up an incredibly complex and profitable operation. And if Canadians are inclined to believe this was a one-off scheme, an aberration to the postcard-perfect image British Columbia projects to the world, think again. There are lots more, we don't have a shortage of targets, says RCMP Supt. Doug Kiloh, of the combined special forces enforcement unit in Vancouver.
Consider, for a moment, just a few figures that show the size and scope of the crime industry in B.C.:
• There are an estimated 20,000 marijuana grow ops in houses across the province, and many thousands more hidden in the mountains and valleys of the interior. It's conservatively estimated that marijuana is an industry with revenues of $5 billion to $7 billion a year.
• In the last few years, according to the Canadian Border Services Agency, more than $1 billion worth of cocaine has been seized at borders in the Pacific region. One media report last fall found the amount of cocaine recovered at B.C.'s borders more than tripled in the previous two years.
• The province is the main port of entry for chemicals used in the manufacture of drugs such as methamphetamine and ecstasy, while B.C.-based Asian gangs are the largest suppliers of ecstasy to Canada and the U.S.
• In the last year there have been roughly two dozen gangland slayings in the Vancouver region. The number of homicides in B.C.'s Lower Mainland in the first four months of this year was nearly three times that of Toronto. And when Maclean's recently looked at Canada's most dangerous cities using data from Statistics Canada, 11 of the top 20 were located in B.C. Meanwhile the number of gangs operating in the province has jumped from less than 10 a decade ago to 129.
Add it all up, and you can't help but see British Columbia for what it is - a key hub in the world of international organized crime. For all its natural beauty and its Birkenstock reputation, police now put Vancouver on par with New York and Los Angeles when they talk of cities in the grip of criminal syndicates. By some estimates, criminal activity amounts to roughly seven per cent of the province's total economy. Though hard and fast numbers about the size of organized crime are impossible to determine, it's safe to say that alongside construction and tourism, criminal activity is one of B.C.'s strongest growth industries. We can quibble about a billion dollars here or a billion dollars there, says Darryl Plecas, a criminology professor at the University College of the Fraser Valley. But the bottom line is there's no question this is a multi-billion [dollar] industry. And as Western Canada positions itself to be North America's most important commercial corridor to Asia, with the much-heralded Pacific Gateway initiative, criminal gangs are poised to expand their operations in a huge way. Crime is big business in B.C., and business, unfortunately, is booming.
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Barry Artiste
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (22)
at 11:39 on May 20th, 2008
Barry Artiste, I like this story. It's good stuff. Your Kidding me! I thought all the Great White Northerners were Back Bacon eating, Beer drinking, tuque wearing, down home, non violent folks. What happened?
at 12:42 on May 20th, 2008
Thanks for visiting Politisite, The problem is not with the Great White Northerns, but the Pacific Rim Easterners who are allowed to come into this country to establish a criminal organization and an totally incompetent Provincial government and a Toothless immigration service along with a useless as tits on bull lefty Justice system which allows all this criminal activity to fester and grow. Also a complacent voting public who stand by and do nothing unless it happens in their own backyard, then watch out as they scream bloody murder, because it happened to them.
at 14:21 on May 20th, 2008
But Barry, we are safe now. What with the gun registry and all!
at 14:44 on May 20th, 2008
Oh Crap, what was I thinking, of course we are, I forgot all the criminals handed in their illegal weapons. False Alarm, nothing to see here, all is A -O Friggin kay
at 15:13 on May 20th, 2008
We always have known the Justice is blind, now we have to ask ourself if is ignorant too?
at 21:48 on May 20th, 2008
Oh we certainly know it is ignorant, blindness is self inflicted. Thanks for the comments Altrugon
at 15:29 on May 20th, 2008
Barry, are you trying to tell us your this close (I'm holding my fore finger and thumb a centimeter apart) to going all out vigilante?
If so - good luck and tell us how it goes.
at 21:53 on May 20th, 2008
I am sure some will resort to vigilantism, the majority will lay down and expose their "Bloated Pink White Bellies" and whimper. I say this, because this has been going on through two successive governments of different political stripes with no change in fact getting worse from my daily perspective. Thanks BigT, I knew you and Politisite of all people would understand where I am coming from.
at 22:01 on May 20th, 2008
Barry,
Aside from legalizing drugs to remove the profit motive what advice would you give to our AG on how to drive organized crime out of the most lucrative business in the world? In my opinion the US model is an utter failure. Gangs and crime are not on the decline and the costs of a "war on drugs" is too high. Until people do not demand drugs they will never go away. Since we know that humans have been drug takers for our entire existance on this planet that is unlikely. So do you know of an example of a country like ours that has put a major dent in this problem?
at 23:19 on May 20th, 2008
Legalizing Illegal Drugs from Heroin to marijuana will throw society into the Shitter with Junkies running rampant through our cities higher than a friggin kite.
To drive out organized crime, our AG needs direction from his Leader, namely Campbell, because let's face it, Oppal don't crap unless he gets permission first from the government. Hence why it is imperative we have a National Police Presence such as the RCMP in this Province far removed from Morons such as this Liberal Government. As a Society similar to ours winning the war on drugs. Vangroovy and British Columbia I find are a society unlike any in the entire world full of useless Morons. The closest Model would be Miami, which pretty much drove out organized Drug crime, thus Miami has been going into a decline as lucrative drug money which fuelled the economy dried up. Property values began to slide drastically before the US subprime hit. As I said, you really, really, need to rent Cocaine Cowboys to see the seriousness of Drugs and Crime, they should do one on Vancouver in a similar vein. Ask any cop in the lower mainland where the "Ho Chi Minh Trail" is, a favoured crime and drug running route.
If I had the power to do something, I would take away the demand for drugs by first eradicating the supply,life in prison for the Drug dealers, no parole, then get the junkies help, if they refuse help ,a nice federally built arctic prison of solitude would certainly cure what ails them. If they wish to escape, then go ahead, if the Polar bears or -50 below zero temperatures don't kill you, the Inuit camped outside the prison and who are hired as bounty hunters at 10k a head will certainly hunt your sorry ass down.
In my opinion, we have become a society of Human rights advocates to those who rape, murder, kill our citizens. The Arctic always has been a source of unemployment, For Murderers, Rapist, Pedophiles, Drug Dealers and other similar horrific crimes against Canadians, I would immediately build all prisons on the Arctics Baffin Island. No conjugal visits, no TV, no radio, no music, no magazines and exercise equipment.
Prisoners would get basic food , no winter clothes, thus escape would be deterred, a bible of their choice to live out their days. Is this harsh? Besides the no winter clothes rule, this is pretty much the conditions I had in the military when I was in Alert in the arctic for 6 months before the advent of VCR's. So I say to you, East Van Ray, if it is good enough for our soldiers, it is certainly good enough for prisoners. Including the conditions in the middle east when our troops are out in the desert for weeks with little western contact, except people are trying to kill them at every opportunity. Oh and get this, we soldiers volunteered to do this.
I guarantee you once cut off from prison luxuries and families, word would spread and prisoners would certainly rethink a life a crime, if the alternative of getting caught was a Canadian Siberia.
In Ending, thanks for the Op of commenting on your comments, EastVan, much appreciated
at 10:20 on May 21st, 2008
Hey Barry,
Thanks for your thoughts. I understand the emotional appeal of the get tough approach. And I do not like to see people addicted to hard drugs. I lived right down in Gastown for 5 years and walked through that sewer every day.
The comments I have are threefold: First it has been tried and is being tried and it does not work. Thailand executes drig dealers. Drugs are still very available there as they are in Muslim countries with similar punishments. It was tried in the USSR without success. And I don't think you are going to call the US model a success, are you where drug use has remained relatively unchaiined since nancy told kids just to "say no" and the government wasted Billions of tax dollars.
Which brings me to the underlying issue. Supply and demand:
Demand: humans have used drugs for as long as there have been humans. Our brains are hardwired to want to have experiences outside our narmal brain function. Drugs achieve that. Reducing the outside (imported) supply (since we all know you will never eliminate the internal supply) of drugs will not reduce people's desire to "get high". It may affect their choices. As imported drugs are more difficult to obtain (read: more expensive) people will switch to domestically produced drugs that are easier and cheaper to get. This is the natural Substitution Effect. It will simply shift production to domestic markets (which may be good for the economy but doesn't change aggregate demand).
Supply: This one is simple. You bust drug dealers and put them in prison (even for life) and what happens: Firstly you are increasing the cost of dealing drugs so the price of drugs must increase to compensate drug dealers for the additional risk. With higher profits now in dealing drugs new drug dealers are attracted to the business. Since the penalties are higher prices will remain elevated. That will allow drug dealers to operate their businesss for shorter periods of time (get in and get out) while making the same fortune as before. There is no lack of supply of people willing to take chances of life in prison in return for the wealth that drug dealing can create. Also by increasing the penalty drug dealers will be less willing to be aprehended. Violence in the drug trade will increase radically as dealers will do anything to stay out of prison. Drug killings will rise, deaths of innocents will increase and deaths of law inforcement officers will increase as we see more scenes like the last scene of Scarface played out.
Prohibition in the US didn't work. People who want their drug of choice will always be willing to take chances to get their fix. Whether it's alcohol, pot, cociane or heroin. Canadian fortunes were made by the first major prohibition in the US and a second round of fortunes are being made today. All we can do is determine who will profit from the sale of drugs. Governments or drug dealers.
In a system of government controlled (and I do not like government but I will make a comprimise for tha sake of this situation) system we have much greater resources to help those that suffer froom addiction. Not only do we have much lower costs associated with a war on drugs (added police, prisons, courts, PO's, lawyers etc) we have huge additional tax revenues. The tax revenues could fund all the anti-drug campaigns you want as well as paying for the detox that we agree on and support programs.
Finally that a legalized drug regime will somehow have "Junkies running rampant through our cities higher than a friggin kite." Come on Barry you know this is not true. It is fear mongering. I for one and I am sure you are with me would not become a junkie just because drugs were legal. I have never smoked a cigarette in my life. Tobacco is a drug and it is legal but I have never even tried it. All I neede to know was that it is highly addictive and it kills. Similarly people who are not inclined to use addictive drugs will not have a moral change of heart just because we make them legally available. Morals and the law are not the same thing. There are many legal things I find immoral and many illegal thing I have no moral issue with. And I am sure that holds for most people. Most people do not need the law to tell them what is right and what is wrong. Changing laws do not change morals; it is the other way around.
Keep in mind I am not advocating that we sell herione or cocaine in liquor stores. Just that it be available legally to those who truly want it. As for soft drugs, those with no proven serious addiction potential then I see no reason why informed adults cannot go to a government run location and buy their weed or their hash or even their Roche brand extacy for use at home on at sanctioned adult only locations (I think we now call them bars).
People are not going to stop using drugs. I wouldn't give up my red wine with dinner or my beers at the hockey game even though alcohol is more harmful than all other drugs combined.
So if reducing/eleiminating the harm to society was the real reason behind the drug prohibition movement then tobacco and alcohol would be their number one target. Funny eh? They never go after the drugs of the white majority!
at 13:41 on May 21st, 2008
Good points all EastVan, funny though the Public expresses more outrage towards a cigarette than they do dope.
Dope has been proven to be gateway drug, and the violence that follows with it, I have never in my life heard of a Violent Home Invasion and killing over a carton of cigarettes or a case of wine or beer have you? Unless that particular invasion was in prison. Trust me, I have been in this business since Christ was a child, or at least it seems that way. I have been to the Gastown, Pender and Rainer hotels on more than one occasion and seen what drugs, including marijuana does to a person. There are many people, just like drinkers who know moderation, but the ones who do not know moderation are the ones out of control, the ones who murder, rape, beat and steal for a fix. I have only witnessed a few who do the above for marijuana, and many who were occasional users of crack , coke, meth etc. Perhaps you are right, the US model isnt working, but I put it this way, better they are in jail, than a citizen or addict in a pine box. To me that is a price through taxes or otherwise I, like many Canadians are willing to pay to be kept safe from harm. Like I said before, I have never heard of violence, murder etc in a home invasion over a carton of smokes or a case of beer. These are completely different addictions my friend,
I guarantee you legalise one drug, and others will demand their drug of choice be legalized. Check out my story link today in this post on a BC town in which it seems opened its arms to the Asian Criminal organization to cultivate Mass Grow ops in order to boost the towns economy. The law is the law, that is why we have them, though some it seems, prefer their own laws when it is convenient. If it is found town council knew explicitly what was going on and failed to do anything about it, I would like to see them jailed indefinitely, as it was concerned citizens it seems alerted them to it, when no action was taken, they went to the RCMP for action.
at 14:20 on May 21st, 2008
The bahaviour follows the illegality of the drug. Do you think for a second if we made alcohol and tobacco illegal that the situation would be any different? I think prison is a perfect case study. Alcohol is prohibited and cigarettes are in short supply. Violence is exactly what happens when someone decides that they want that contriband more than its current owner. Did you read the projections that a carton of cigarettes could fetch over $1000.00 when a total ban on tobacco hits the prison system? making it the most expensive contriband in prison. The corrections union is against the ban for exactly that reason. They project riots and huge surges in violence.
Who would you rather be stuck in a cell with? A guy wanting a joint or a cigarette smoker going through nicotine withdrawl? I'll take the pothead any day!
As for gangs and violence (from crimelibrary.com):
During Prohibition, rumrunners and bootleggers used the frozen river as an easy way to get booze from Canada into the United States. From Detroit liquor went to Chicago (where Capone sold it under his "Log Cabin" label), St. Louis, and points west.
It was a well-known fact that if you were bringing a load of hooch across the Detroit River that you had better show up armed to the teeth. Because in the 1920s, Detroit belonged to the Purple Gang, a group of killers and thugs as vicious and bloodthirsty as any racketeer in New York or Chicago.
The Purples ran the rackets in Detroit for much of the 1920s and early 30s until the Syndicate boys from back east moved in and wrested control from a gang that had seen its numbers decimated by infighting and prosecution.
Detroit may not have been New York, but make no mistake: the Purple Gang was tough. They were strong enough to tell Capone to keep his mitts off eastern Michigan and managed to hold on to control of most of the state when Scarface was at his peak (U.S. 31, which cuts the gut of Grand Rapids and runs from the top of the mitten to the Indiana border was the territorial line. West of 31 was Capone’s territory but east belonged to the Purples). Capone coveted Detroit, with its huge number of hardworking, hard-drinking laborers, but wisely decided it was better to buy booze from the Purple Gang than to fight them.
So it seems to me that the real problem here is not drugs but addiction and prohibition. Addiction to anything is ugly and destructive and addicts will resort to all sorts of bad behaviour to get their fix. And criminal gangs will resort to anything to protect their markets and profits. And amungs those gangs are Big Pharma. Go down to Carnagie Centre and guess what? You will be offered all sorts of "legal" drugs. These addicts don't seem any less addicted or any less desparate because they addicted to what are perfectly legal substances.
Legal or illegal people will use drugs. They are getting it now, all I am saying is how do we allow free people in a free society to exercize free will while minimizing the collateral damage to the rest of us. That in the challenge not a moral war against what other people want to do for fun. You know the saying..."My right to swing my fist ends at you nose."
I maintain that part of the solution to reducing violence abd gangs is to get them out of the drug business. legaization and regulation is the only way I know that would achieve that. hell if it didn't I doubt things could get much worse by trying it.
at 14:35 on May 21st, 2008
Thanks for the commentary EastVan , much appreciated, we just have two different sets of opinions, you know what though? You left out one of the Biggest illegal Booze barons of all time "Joe Kennedy", of the Political Kennedy's Dad to Robert, JFK and Ted Kennedy, without Prohibition the Kennedys for the most part would be "Joe Six Packs", like you and me. Course not to mention if memory serves me correct, Seagrams, and other big name booze dynastys
at 14:51 on May 21st, 2008
Good old Joe Kennedy. One thing about him is I think he was the last Kennedy with a real job. Since him the rest have been succling at the government tit. My favorite quote from him was to JFK's campaign manager and it went something like this...."I want you to spend whatever it takes to make my son President....and not one dollar more."
at 15:44 on May 21st, 2008
Yeah, that damn drunken Irish Lout, ya gotta love the Irish Charm though, Marilyn Monroe did. hahaha
at 14:41 on May 21st, 2008
As for prisoners without smokes, there are two trains of thought here, some prison union members want the ban as well, most likely to prevent the prisoners from having access to matches, though I think the real reason is prisoners may weed out the prison population amongst themselves, hence less overcrowding. As for sharing a cell with an inmate having a nicotine fit, I would think rape and sodomy would be more of a fear than an inmate craving for a Butt!, unless that Butt was his roomate! Sorry for the Pun, but I have no sympathy for any inmate, they are the inventors of their own demise.
at 14:54 on May 21st, 2008
Nice one Barry. I stepped right into that one. I was not trying to assert that you would find yourself in prison. It was a hypothetical question.
at 18:35 on May 20th, 2008
Barry Artiste, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 08:29 on May 21st, 2008
Thanks for the comments Mike, I hear Toronto is the runner up! Political change needs a "Really Big Bitch Slap Upside the Head" if anything is to change.
Here is a story I posted this morning where it seems even the Mayor and Council of a small BC town seem to welcome Organized Crime with open arms, or at least turn a blind eye to it. And we wonder why we are losing the war on drugs?
http://www.nowpublic.com/environment/town-likely-b-c-marijuana-number-one-crop
at 08:02 on May 21st, 2008
at 05:25 on November 5th, 2008
Thanks Composite, certainly an eyeopener to BC now isn't it?