Pubdate: Wed, 28 Nov 2012 Source: Province, The (CN BC) Copyright: 2012 Postmedia Network Inc. Contact: http://www2.canada.com/theprovince/letters.html Website: http://www.theprovince.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476 Page: A20 GANGSTERS' LIVES END IN PRISON OR IN DEATH If young people didn't have the message already, this has been an instructive week for anyone thinking it might be cool to join a drug gang. On Sunday, following what was described as B.C.'s longestrunning criminal jury trial, five members of the Greeks gang out of Vernon were convicted of three drug-linked murders. Then on Monday, Sukhveer Dhak, a "high-ranking member of the Dhak-Duhre crime group," and his bodyguard, Thomas Mantel, were shot to death in the lobby of a Burnaby hotel. As these two incidents demonstrate - as hundreds of previous cases have done before - life in a drug gang generally either ends in death or in prison - usually at a very young age. Dhak was 27; Mantel was 30. Given what they had done in life, including victimizing others, few will feel sympathy for them. But they leave family and friends who are grieving. While it's too late for Dhak and Mantel and probably so for hundreds of others already living violent lives in B.C. gangs, it's not too late for young people who may be feeling drawn to that life. If you know one of them, tell them where that career will end: either prison or a cold, dark box in the ground. - --- MAP posted-by: Matt