RCMP LINK B.C. GANG VIOLENCE TO MEXICAN DRUG WARS

VANCOUVER and TORONTO -- It's a long way from the Mexican border town
of Ciudad Juarez to a Delta, B.C., golf course where a 32-year-old
man on Monday night was found dead near his grey Cadillac, shot
multiple times and left to die.

But police say the two locations, roughly 3,000 kilometres apart, are
linked by a drug war that has turned towns such as Ciudad Juarez into
war zones, has sent the price of cocaine soaring and is reflected in
a rash of deadly gang shootings that have rocked Metro Vancouver in
recent weeks.

Violence between competing Mexican cartels is squeezing the flow of
drugs from source countries such as Mexico and Colombia through
cities such as Los Angeles, one of the major sources for
Vancouver-based groups that buy and sell illegal drugs, says Pat
Fogarty, RCMP superintendent with the combined forces special
enforcement unit. Gangs in the Lower Mainland are now fighting over
the dwindling supply.

"The distribution lines have been disrupted," Supt. Fogarty said
yesterday in an interview. "It's like in any marketplace - the demand
stays high, but there's not as many distributors out there because
the little guys get knocked off.

"The bigger ones survive, the other ones don't. And these guys don't
resolve things through a court process. It's 'I want my piece of the
pie' - well, there's none left for you."

The Mexican gang violence is a major element of Lower Mainland gang
shootings that have killed at least nine people since the beginning
of the year, Supt. Fogarty said.

Yesterday, embattled B.C. police were able to trumpet a rare piece of
good news when they announced five arrests, including that of a
leader of the UN Gang, one of the major gangs operating in the
province, and promising more to come.

Those arrested include Barzan Tilli-Choli, 26, of Vancouver,
described by police as a UN Gang leader, who was charged with two
counts of attempted murder in connection with a targeted hit outside
a Surrey bar last month.

In that incident, shooters in an SUV pulled up beside a Range Rover
stopped at an intersection, raking the vehicle with bullets as four
people - two men and two women - sat inside.

One man was wounded in that shooting, which had targeted an associate
of the three Bacon brothers, who have been linked to gang activity
and who have been the subject of rare warnings to the public about
the danger of associating or doing business with them.

Also arrested and charged with two counts of attempted murder were
Aram Ali, 23, and Nicola Cottrell, 26, of New Westminster, B.C.

Sarah Trebble, 28, of West Vancouver, was charged with one count of
occupying a vehicle knowing there was a firearm inside, and Karwan
Saed, 32, of Burnaby, was charged with being an accessory after the fact.

The arrests followed an investigation that involved multiple agencies
including the Vancouver Police Department and the RCMP. The recent
rash of gang killings has resulted in calls by some for a unified
police force for Metro Vancouver, which is served by a patchwork of
different forces.

Last month, the federal government named a deputy solicitor-general
to act as a gangs czar.

RCMP said yesterday that all Lower Mainland police agencies are
working together to tackle gangs. Those efforts extend to
neighbouring Alberta, where forces in Calgary and Edmonton pitched in
on the investigation.

In Delta, a suburban community in the Metro Vancouver area, police
are trying to piece together a homicide from Monday night in which a
man was shot, possibly several times, and killed.

Police called about 6:40 p.m. on Monday to Ladner Trunk Road, a
highway near the Delta Golf Course, found Abbotsford resident
Sukhwinder Dhaliwal, 32, slumped over next to his grey Cadillac. He'd
been shot, apparently several times, and left for dead.

Delta police described it as a targeted, gang-style shooting.

Delta Police Chief Constable Jim Cessford has been a vocal opponent
of a metro force, saying community police services can better meet
community needs.

But the Monday night murder shows that Delta is not immune to gang
violence, which would be best tackled by a single regional police
force, argues Robert Gordon, director of the school of criminology at
Simon Fraser University.

"Even bucolic Delta is going to be visited by crime, serious crime,
because the actions of organized crime groups have no respect for
municipal boundaries, and they will roam anywhere in the area," he
said. "They don't care whether it's Delta or where the hell else,
they will do their business. And so you can expect more of that to happen."

On a visit last month to Vancouver, Prime Minister Stephen Harper met
with regional police chiefs and families of victims of gang violence,
including relatives of two innocent bystanders who were among six men
killed in a gangland slaying at a Surrey high-rise in 2007 that
remains unsolved.

Ottawa last month announced proposed legislation to toughen penalties
for gang-related crime.