Pubdate: Thu, 13 Dec 2012
Source: Lloydminster Source (CN SN)
Copyright: 2012 Lloydminster Source
Contact:  http://www.lloydminstersource.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4856
Author: Thomas Miller
Note: MAP archives articles exactly as published, except that our editors
may redact the names and addresses of accused persons who have not been
convicted of a crime, if those named are not otherwise public figures or
officials.

DRUG TRADE FUELS GANG ACTIVITY: RCMP

Last week the RCMP arrested four men with links to the White Boy
Posse, a street gang based out of Edmonton.

Two of those men were Lloydminster residents. The arrests came in
connection to three murders and one attempted murder; one of the
murders and the attempted murder took place just north of Lloydminster
on Range Road 11.

According to Lloydminster RCMP Cpl. Shayne Hartwell, there isn't a
great deal of gang activity in Lloydminster, but the White Boy Posse
are active in the Border City.

Their primary function in Lloydminster is cocaine dealing, and though
there are other groups in the city who deal cocaine, those groups
aren't quite as organized as the White Boy Posse.

Hartwell went on to say that the White Boy Posse is here because
there's a lot of money to be made selling cocaine.

"We have a high user population here on the cocaine side. It's
lucrative. That's why these groups are coming to Lloyd, they want to
make money," said Hartwell in a phone interview.

"They've been in Lloyd since 2011, and Lloydminster is one of several
communities in Alberta and Saskatchewan that are affected by the White
Boy Posse, we're not the only ones."

Michael Chettleburgh is president of the Astwood Strategy Corporation,
an Ontario-based company dealing in the area of criminal and social
justice that counts the RCMP among their clients.

He says we can't think of illicit drugs like cocaine as fringe
activity - he estimated that four million people in Canada consume
some sort of illicit drug every year.

"When you start to monetize what that demand looks like, it's into the
hundreds of millions of dollars every year at the street level, the
value of the drug trade in Canada," said Chettleburgh in a phone
interview. "If you start looking at some of the resource sector, Fort
McMurray ... the demand in those kind of communities and other work
camps, it's huge."

He also estimated that the drug trade as a whole in Canada accounts
for over $8 billion, so there's money to be made even at the local
level.

"I know of 16-, 18-year-old drug dealers that work supplying the work
camps in other parts of the country, they can make $15,000, $18,000
every two weeks. So it's a huge economic incentive to participate in
these gangs," added Chettleburgh. "The money, if you play your cards
right, if you're good at what you do, if you're able to move a lot of
weight on the street, certainly replaces any job they could ever dream
of holding in the legit world."

And with that much money on the line, sometimes the White Boy Posse
will use violence to achieve their goals, says Hartwell.

But, he cautions, that violence is not directed at the general public.
"Most of the violence that they are perpetuating are on other people
within the group who have screwed up or people who are opposing groups
within the local drug trade," he explained. "It's not random and it's
not directed at those in the general public. It's within the drug
trade, that's who they're looking to hurt and looking to deal with."

"We've always had violence in the cocaine trade in Lloyd. But the
White Boy Posse have taken it to a whole new level.

"Quite frankly, we're not going to tolerate any of this (expletive).
We're not going to put up with their violence."

Chettleburgh elaborated that an up-and-coming gang must try to
establish themselves to make sure rival gangs won't cut into their
markets or relationships with smaller groups that help peddle drugs.

"Violence (is) in response to wrongdoing to your gang, whether that's
a drug deal gone bad, whether that's an unpaid debt, whether that's a
rival gang trying to cut in on you, you demonstrate sheer violence to
send a message that we are bigger, badder and stronger than you," he
said, adding that violence can also be a reflection of how committed
they are to the gang, or even be a demonstration that a young gang
member might be ready for a promotion.

"They have been widely associated as a puppet gang of the Hell's
Angels. So if you want to graduate to the rarefied air of true
organized crime and the world's largest bike club, you need to
establish your street cred. And your street cred is going to be how
violent you are, how productive you can be in terms of making money
and how loyal you can be to your crew. So this violence is designed to
achieve many things, many things to the gang, but also many things to
the individuals who are associated with the violence and one of those
things could very well be trying to prove to your true organized crime
brothers that you're worthy of membership."

Though the White Boy Posse identifies themselves with the Nazi
swastika, that's not something they show in public, only internally as
a quick Google search will show photos of gang members with Nazi
flags. Hartwell says that full members of the White Boy Posse have
tattoos with the initials WBP on them, but other than that, they don't
have any sort of identifiable colour of clothing.

"The people working for them that are not official gang members in the
sense of being sworn into the gang, they don't have tattoos yet," he
said, adding that it's more than just Caucasians working for the gang.
"They've got Native people working for them here in Lloyd ... males
and females, all different ages, working for them. Generally speaking,
they don't identify themselves as being a traditional street gang."

Hartwell went on to say that the Lloydminster RCMP are aware of the
key players within the group in our local area.

"As a result of our intelligence and our efforts from our members, it
resulted in being able to assist in recent high-profile arrests
involving this group. So we're very aware of who's involved," he said.

And with the group operating over a wide area, the local RCMP can draw
on resources from other detachments.

"Part of being a national police force is that there are tons of
resources that we can bring to bear on something like this and we will
do it," he said.

"The recent arrests will show just what lengths we will go to do deal
with these groups."

[name redacted], 22, and [name redacted], 22, are
charged with first degree murder in the death of Bryan Gower, who was
killed just north of Lloydminster on Range Road 11 in September.

[names redacted] are also charged with attempted murder of a
second man in the same incident.

In addition to those charges, the two men face first degree murder
charges stemming from the killing of Lorry Santos, 35, in Saskatoon on
Sept. 12.

[name redacted], a 29-year-old from Edmonton is also charged with first
degree murder in the death of Santos.

[name redacted] faces a third charge of first degree murder in the death of
Robert John Roth Sr., 54, a Lloydminster man whose remains were found
near Ranfurly, Alta. on Oct. 20, and whose head was found in Edmonton
on Oct. 25.

[name redacted], a 32-year-old from Wainwright, also faces a
first degree murder charge in that case. 
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D