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TORONTO --
Canadian police trying to fight organized
crime should learn from the mob itself by
putting aside turf wars and working as one,
a conference run by the Ontario government
heard Wednesday. Groups ranging from the
Mafia to the Russian mob and Columbian drug
cartels have been joining forces in Canada,
experts told the
organized crime summit. But police trying to
fight them can still be hampered by
territorial barriers, especially when it
comes to sharing information they gather on
criminals, the meeting was told. ``One of
the problems is our own behaviour,'' said
Giuliano Zaccardelli, an RCMP deputy
commissioner. ``We've got to be able to
overcome this territorial aspect of our
business, to not use information as power .
. . The enemy is set up to operate this way.
We have to work together to defend
ourselves.'' The problem is not just within
Canada. A recent international police
operation against the mob was threatened by
a dispute between units from two of the
countries involved, said Antonio Nicaso,
a journalist and widely recognized authority
on organized crime. The conference convened
by the Ontario Attorney General's Ministry
also heard more general warnings that
organized crime is a growing force in the
province. Experts said its pervasive effects
include: - Widespread telemarketing scams
that typically bilk senior citizens. - The
danger of a Quebec-style biker war here. -
Ecstasy labs full of volatile chemicals that
could level a city block if they explode. -
Threats against prosecutors and police. -
Money laundering that helps keep
international drug-dealing networks running
smoothly.
Nicaso
said the mob in Canada is different than in
the United States and some other places
because crime groups -- except for biker
gangs -- tend to keep a low profile and work
collaboratively.
About a dozen
organizations have formed various alliances,
said the author of several books on the
topic. ``With the exception of the
motorcycle gangs, we have a unique
situation,'' he said. ``In Canada the major
organized crime groups
are not territorial . . . There is
co-operation between groups in order to
slice up the criminal profit.'' Police
intercepted communications in Montreal
between the local bosses of the Sicilian
Mafia, the Irish mob, Columbian drug dealers
and the Hell's Angels in which they agreed
on a cartel that set the
prices of illegal drugs, he said. In
Toronto, investigators have recently
detected similar contacts between Eastern
European criminal groups, the Chinese Triad
and traditional Mafia, said Nicaso,
citing confidential police sources.
``They're integrated vertically and
horizontally,'' Murray Segal, Ontario's
chief prosecutor, told the meeting. But
Solicitor General Dave Tsubouchi warned that
turf battles between outlaw bikers could
pose a greater threat here. Ontario is
already home to 11 outlaw gangs with more
than 600 members but with the Hell's Angels
trying to set up chapters here, the kind of
violence Quebec has seen since 1994 is
possible, he
said. |
