MEXICAN DRUG WAR SPILLING INTO CANADA

Police Say Gang Activity In Vancouver, Elsewhere Is 'Directly Related'
To Relentless Cartel Wars

OTTAWA - The increase in gang violence on the streets of Vancouver and
other Canadian cities has direct ties to the grisly drug-cartel wars
that have terrorized Mexico and some American border towns, say
Canadian and U.S. police.

Violence has reached a fever pitch in parts of Mexico, where the
government of President Felipe Calderon has sent in 45,000 soldiers
and 5,000 federal police officers to try to curb cartel activity. More
than 7,000 people have died in the last two years, with 1,000 deaths
in January alone.

The United States has felt the impact, with the cartels sending
assassins across the border and more and more cells springing up
across the country to distribute cocaine from the south.

Those distribution lines ultimately lead to Canada, making this
country far from immune to what's going on in Mexico, says RCMP Supt.
Pat Fogarty. Recent gang-related violence in British Columbia and
elsewhere is "directly related to this Mexican war," he said yesterday.

Almost all cocaine in Canada comes via Mexico, the hub for South
American producers. Canadian-based organized crime groups buy the drug
either directly from the cartels in Mexico, or from middlemen in Los
Angeles and other American cities.

When the supply of cocaine is hampered by crackdowns and the price
goes up, says Fogarty, competition for the remaining kilos gets tense
in Canada. The bigger players with good links to the south prevail,
leaving the smaller ones scrambling.

"People are running around trying to find other sources of cocaine.
The price goes up and the guns come out," said Fogarty.

Canada came up several times at a high-profile U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration news conference last week.

"From Washington to Maine, we have disrupted this cartel's domestic
operations - arresting U.S. cell heads ... and seriously impacting
their Canadian drug operations as well," acting administrator Michele
Leonhart said. Peter Kent, minister of state for the Americas, said
the Canadian government is collaborating with Mexico on several levels
to help it tackle the drug problem, including co-operation at
political, military and police levels. He said security throughout the
region will be a dominant issue at the upcoming Summit of the Americas.