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Western Canada home to the country’s most dangerous organized crime groups

By Quinn Patrick, True North Wire

Western Canada is home to four criminal organizations considered high-level threats to national security, according to Criminal Intelligence Service Canada.

The federal agency released its 2024 Public Report on Organized Crime, which contains data from law enforcement across the country.

The report found that “organized crime remains a preeminent threat to Canada’s security, contributing to thousands of deaths annually from overdoses due to illicit drugs, as well as firearms and gang violence.”

Nearly half, 45% of Organized Crime Groups are “assessed to operate beyond their base provinces. OCGs engaged in criminal activity in provinces beyond their base primarily originate from and operate within Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, and Quebec.”

These groups are said to be involved in multiple and diverse illicit markets which cooperate with transnational networks.

While the agency did not address these high-level threat groups by name, its descriptions of two western gangs appear similar to the B.C.-based Wolfpack gang alliance and the United Nations gang.

The report noted that one of those gangs has a reach which extends throughout the Americas and Europe, and is “involved in fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine, money laundering, homicide and intimidation/extortion.”

Another of the B.C. groups has ties to crime networks in the Caribbean, Europe and Oceania.

“It is involved in cocaine, methamphetamine, firearms, fraud, vehicle theft, money laundering, homicide, and intimidation. It has direct contact with transnational drug trafficking organizations who supply drugs and help coordinate logistics,” reads the report.

The third B.C. criminal organization deemed high-risk has a network across the continent and into Asia.

“It is involved in cocaine, fentanyl, precursor chemicals, cannabis, fraud, money laundering, loansharking, bookmaking, and intimidation/extortion,” reads the report. “It uses individuals with specialized skills, using a hierarchy of roles depending on the specific job to optimize the group’s overall proficiency.”

full story at https://tnc.news/2024/12/08/western-canada-dangerous-crime-groups/

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