Pubdate: Thu, 08 Nov 2007
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2007 The Vancouver Sun
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Neal Hall and Kim Bolan

METRO COPS JOIN TO FIGHT GANGS

45 Officers Will Be 'Getting In The Faces' Of Known Gangsters

Almost two dozen Metro Vancouver police chiefs and commanding officers
turned out in force Wednesday to announce they will join Vancouver
police to launch a regional attack against gang violence.

"We have to stop the killing and safeguard the public," Vancouver
police Chief Jim Chu said Wednesday in announcing the latest strategy
aimed at quelling a recent spike of gang violence that has claimed
four lives on Vancouver streets within a week and 19 so far this year
across the region.

Starting next week, the new Violence Suppression Team, whose officers
will wear the title emblazoned on their jackets, will start
aggressively "getting in the faces" of known gangsters at night clubs,
their homes, their cars and their known hangouts region-wide.

Vancouver police Insp. Dean Robinson, now head of the police
department's gang crime unit, will head the new team, which will
include 31 Vancouver officers and 14 members from other police forces,
including the RCMP.

The size of the team is expected to quickly grow to 60, including 15
crime analysts and clerks, after the latest anti-gang squad becomes
operational on Nov. 14.

"We are united in suppressing gang violence," RCMP Assistant
Commissioner Al MacIntyre, the officer in charge of operations in
B.C., said at a news conference at Vancouver RCMP headquarters
attended by four municipal police chiefs and 18 commanding officers of
every police force in the Lower Mainland.

He said the recent "cowardly acts" of gang violence indicate the fluid
membership of gangs are jockeying for position in the criminal
underworld, which makes a lucrative living from the sale of illegal
drugs.

"This has been pulled together very, very quickly," Robinson told
reporters about the new police team. "We're still in the construction
stage."

A day earlier, the Vancouver police department announced it planned to
launch a new squad called the Gang Violence Task Force.

Robinson said in an interview Wednesday that after Tuesday's
announcement, Vancouver's police chief met with police leaders from
across the region, who agreed to form a new regional response to gang
violence.

"The chiefs realized we need to unify and come together on this,"
Robinson said, adding the earlier Vancouver police announcement was
then retooled as the Violence Suppression Team.

"Every agency is committed to providing the best people they have," he
said. "We're throwing the best people we have at this problem."

Robinson said the focus on the streets throughout the region will be
similar to the crackdown effort conducted in Vancouver's entertainment
district by the Firearms Interdiction Team, which aggressively checks
gang members and seizes handguns.

"We're looking at taking all the streets away from them," he said.
"We're going to be in people's faces and be out there . . . to make it
difficult for them to go out."

The gangs involved in recent violence -- the UN Gang and Independent
Soldiers were the only ones referred to by name -- are "all about guns
and violence and drugs," Robinson said.

Supt. John Robin, who is in charge of the Integrated Gang Task Force,
a regional unit that includes RCMP and police from Vancouver and other
regional municipalities, said the focus of the IGTF was more on
long-term prosecutions and suppression of gang activity.

"This is right at the street level of enforcement," Robin said of the
new gang violence suppression team. Both agencies will share
intelligence on gang members, including what cars they drive, where
they live and their known hangouts, he added.

Robinson said the unit will initially target those suspected of being
involved in recent murders and gang violence. But he added: "We're
going to target all the people who avail themselves to us."

Asked if the proof of the police team's success will be the number of
arrests the team makes, Robinson said: "The proof will be in arrests,
firearms seizures and quelling the violence."

He said the new team is a good example of how regional policing can
work. "This is a real demonstration of integration."

The announcement followed the latest gang-style double murder at 70th
and Granville, which occurred just after 2 a.m. Tuesday as two
dark-coloured SUVs boxed in a late-model leased Mercedes. A gunman
from one of the SUVs fatally shot two men in the luxury vehicle:
31-year-old Ronal Shakeel Raj of Surrey and 25-year-old Ali Abhari of
Kelowna.

Raj did not have any recent record in the court's computer database,
which goes back to 1996. He faced a civil suit over a traffic accident
in 2000.

Police believe Abhari was the intended target of Tuesday's shooting.
Police say he is a well-known Persian gangster affiliated with some of
the biggest organized criminals in his community.

But Abhari's police record was not extensive, according to court
records, with many of the entries relating to driving infractions in
Vancouver, Kelowna and Squamish.

In 2002, he was charged in North Vancouver with possession of stolen
property along with an associate named Fahed Abdul-aziz Mohammad, but
the charge was later stayed.

In 2003, he was again targeted by North Vancouver RCMP, who laid a
charge of theft against Abhari and another man named Saad Al Chalabi.
Again the charge against Abhari was stayed while Chalabi was acquitted.

He was charged in Kelowna in October 2001 with assault causing bodily
harm, but that charge was later stayed.

Vancouver police laid a charge of wilfully resisting a peace officer
against Abhari in April 2005 after he was arrested. He was found
guilty and got a suspended sentence.

In November 2006, the young gangster was charged with assault, but
that was stayed in early October of this year -- just a month before
he was killed.

As well, Abhari was facing two civil suits at the time of his death
related to a car accident at Granville and Seventh Ave. in July 2006
when he rear-ended a vehicle while heading north.

The victims had a hard time serving Abhari the documents, according to
court files, but finally found a Coquitlam address for him on Barnet
Highway. They also sent a process server to his mother's Kelowna home.

"She advised me that Ali Abhari does not live here any more and that
she did not know where he lived. She further advised me that he calls
once in a while, but that she did not know his phone number or cell
number," the process server said in court documents.
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