Pubdate: Thu, 10 Feb 2011
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2011 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/theprovince/letters.html
Website: http://www.theprovince.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Author: Cassidy Olivier

RISE IN WASH. GANG VIOLENCE TIED TO SPILLOVER FROM B.C.

Drug Trade Fuels Organized Crime on Both Sides of Border

U.S. cops in Whatcom County are struggling to keep a handle on an 
escalating gang problem that's seen membership almost double and 
rival groups exchange gunfire in the streets.

Just weeks after Lower Mainland authorities warned of growing gang 
tensions here, police in Whatcom County, about an hour's drive from 
Vancouver, announced the local gang population had risen from about 
150 to 250 known members in 2007 to about 350 to 450 this year.

According to a recent story in the Bellingham Herald, an estimated 38 
gangs now operate in the region. This spike has resulted in a rise in 
gang-related murders, assaults and shootings, with many of the 
gangsters getting involved in drug trafficking and street dealing.

Last month, gunfire erupted in east Bellingham between rival members 
of the Brown Pride Surenos and Bonsallo Locos Surenos.

No one was injured, but the growing violence had Sheriff Bill Elfo of 
the Whatcom Country sheriff's office telling the media that the 
violence is an issue "we need to get a handle on."

The Herald's story said that the movement and sale of B.C.-produced 
drugs by Lower Mainland groups was a key point made by the Bellingham 
Police Department in a 2009 grant application to pay for a full-time 
gang detective.

The report noted that the department continued to see gang members 
from "lower British Columbia" come to Bellingham to "commit their crimes."

The department said further that B.C. gangsters were almost 
exclusively responsible for the sale of B.C. pot and ecstasy in the area.

However, Chief Criminal Deputy Doug Chadwick of the sheriff's office 
said there's no definitive link between the import of B.C. drugs to 
the recent rise of gang violence in and around Bellingham.

"I don't think I could make an educated comment on that quite 
honestly," Chadwick told The Province Wednesday.

Sgt. Shinder Kirk of B.C.'s Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit 
said cross-border business relationships between U.S. and B.C. gangs 
is nothing new.

The exchange of B.C. pot for cash, guns and cocaine is something 
authorities have been aware of for years, Kirk said.

"All it means is that there's a continued demand for whatever is 
grown or produced here," he said.

Kirk said there's nothing to indicate the trouble brewing just south 
of the border has anything to do with recent gang tensions in Metro 
Vancouver that has featured brazen, targeted shootings in Vancouver's west side.
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