Vancouver gang members arrested in Victoria; Red Scorpions moving into drug market in BC

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Vancouver gang members arrested in Victoria; Red Scorpions moving into drug market in BC

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Opinion

Barry Artiste, Now Public Contributor

The arrest of those affiliated with a criminal organization the Red Scorpion in British Columbia, hopefully will make a major dent in criminal activity in BC. One hopes our Justice System keeps them locked up for good and not set bail.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=984138be-2c25-4c22-a24f-dd8a4df4dbc1

Vancouver gang members arrested in Victoria

Victoria police say the Red Scorpions were aggressively moving into local drug market

Rob Shaw, Vancouver Sun

Published: Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Victoria police say they've dismantled a chapter of the Vancouver-based Red Scorpions gang that was so aggressively trying to get a foothold into the drug market it threatened other dealers and sometimes gave crack cocaine away for free.

Police arrested seven people, in their late teens and early 20s, last week and raided a Saanich home they called the base of operations for a burgeoning Greater Victoria "dial-a-dope" operation.

In addition to the arrests, police found $3,000 in cash, $1,000 in cocaine and a loaded sawed-off shotgun inside a local home, said Brown.

The raid was the culmination of a month-long undercover operation by the Greater Victoria Regional Crime Unit, in which plain-clothes officers bought crack cocaine from dealers mainly in the city's downtown core, said Const. Colin Brown, a lead investigator.

"We certainly believe that we've made a dent in this group," said Brown. "Of the initial 11 members we identified, seven are in custody, one is on house arrest in the Lower Mainland and the other three are facing charges as a result of this file.

" The seven in custody, which include one woman, face a variety of drug trafficking, possession for the purpose of trafficking and weapons charges, said Brown.