Calgary police were appealing for tips following two shootings that injured two young men.Neither shooting was a random act, said Calgary police, who summed up the gunplay as just the latest example of the "blatant disregard gang members have for innocent members of the community who could have been hit by errant bullets."
Michael Chettleburgh, author of Young Thugs: Inside the Dangerous World of Canadian Street Gangs, warns of a rise in the number of young people joining gangs and says the increasing gunplay on Canadian streets is a symptom of a burgeoning drug trade.
"Where there are guns and gangs there are drugs," Mr. Chettleburgh says. "A lot of the violence you see right now across the country, and it is different in different cities, is driven by gang rivalry associated with protection of markets."
Mr. Chettleburgh researched and wrote the 2002 Canadian Police Survey on Youth Gangs for the federal government and will release the results of a new survey this year.
Mr. Chettleburgh estimates there are between 11,000 to 14,000 gang members under the age of 21 across the country, up from 7,000 in the 2002 Police Survey on Youth Gangs.
In Winnipeg last month, a 15-year-old street gang member was one of three charged in a triple murder after masked shooters opened fire at a house party.
The shootings, a police source told the Winnipeg Free Press, were a result of increasing hostilities between the Central -- a youth-oriented street gang -- and Indian Posse gangs.Edmonton has logged a series of gang-related shootings since January, including several incidents where shots were fired into houses.
And Vancouver has seen 14 gang related homicides since January, according to police.
Last year, several highly public "gangland style" shootings at restaurants, along with the deaths of two innocent bystanders during a targeted drug related hit at a Surrey apartment, spurred police to create a multi-jurisdictional gang unit.
Only six months old, the Uniform Gang Task Force -- made up of 60 officers from Vancouver and surrounding municipalities along with the RCMP -- is in the process of becoming permanent, says Vancouver police inspector Dean Robinson.
The head of the integrated unit says police have laid "loads of charges" and seized three submachine guns among other weapons as the high-profile squad tries to move gang violence out of the "public domain."While there has no doubt been an increase in the prevalence of guns, it is the type of firearms and their use "at the drop of a hat" that worries Mr. Robinson most.
"We've gone from seeing fairly unsophisticated revolvers, to semi automatic pistols to hunting rifles sawed off, to machine guns and military-grade assault rifles," Mr. Robinson says.
In Calgary, Staff Sgt. Martin Schiavetta of the Organized Crime Operations Centre says it is not uncommon for police to find gang members wearing body armour.
Toronto Deputy Police Chief Tony Warr says the propensity for violence has reached down from major drug dealers to minor drug traffickers who carry guns because they are afraid of getting ripped off or shot by their competition."Where in the past it would have been a fist fight, now it is a gunfight over the same minor issues," says Mr. Warr. "There seems to be an acceptance of violence more generally by the community and it is reflected in the way kids are acting in school, what we see on television and by these gangs where, if they have a problem, they shoot a person."
In 2006, 8,100 people across the country were victims of violent gun crimes including robbery, assault and homicide, according to Statistics Canada.
Although the number of violent gun crimes in Canada has not risen in recent years the number of young people using guns in violent crimes has risen in three of the previous four years.That rate has gone up 32% since 2002, according to Statistics Canada.
Part of the is due to a growth in young people joining gangs, Mr. Chettleburgh says, but it is also due to better police intelligence as a result of more money and resources being dedicated to gang units in the wake of high-profile gun violence in recent years.
In Toronto, Mayor David Miller acknowledges a Canada-wide handgun ban isn't a panacea, but says it is the "the next step" in helping to reduce the number of victims of violent gun crimes.
Mr. Miller plans to personally deliver the petition to Parliament Hill in June. So far, it has 20,000 signatures.
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day has called Miller's campaign well-intentioned, but says handguns are already subject to a ban for all but a few licensed owners and collectors.

25 women went beserk in a mass brawl just inches from live railway tracks.
The huge punch-up between two rival teenage gangs, one of which was travelling to a nearby fun fair, left two girls needing hospital treatment.
Police say some of those involved used snooker balls wrapped inside socks to club their opponents around the head.
Other items which could have been used as weapons were also discovered littered around the area and on train tracks in the aftermath of the brawl.
It began on the platform at Shoreham train station but spilled onto the railway tracks, endangering the lives of those fighting and also those of people travelling on late night trains.Officers arrested two women, an 18-year-old and a 20-year-old, both from the Brighton area on suspicion of causing affray.The pair were bailed to report to Worthing police station on May 17.A spokeswoman for British Transport Police said: "It was a pretty big fight."It began when one group of women got off the train at Shoreham and came into contact with the other group who were waiting at the station. We don't know what sparked it at the moment."The train arrived on the westbound platform around 10.30pm on Saturday night.Fighting initially took place on the station but quickly spilled onto the railway line.
It is thought one of the groups attempted to back away from the fight but were followed onto the line.
Two women, a 17-year-old and an 18-year-old, who police said were from the local area, needed treatment at Worthing Hospital for their injuries.The pair were said to have sustained bruising and cuts.Both were kept in for observation overnight and released on Sunday.It is thought the group of women who got off the train at Shoreham were heading to the fun fair being held around half a mile away on land south of Shoreham Airport.
The British Transport Police spokeswoman said: "They were trespassing on the railway line during the fight."It appears as though one of the groups was trying to get away but were chased or followed and the fight continued."The spokeswoman was unable to confirm whether the fight had been prearranged or was spontaneous.
British Transport Police officers from Brighton were sent to the scene and managed to break up those still fighting.
ussex Police helicopter was also sent to the scene later in the evening and spotted some of the women still hanging around the station area.Trains were still running in both directions as the fight ensued.
However no disruption was caused to the railway network.

Ger Dundon left Limerick in the company of another young man and woman and went to Spain last week. He has been a regular visitor to the resort of Estepona on the Costa del Sol where he was known to keep company with Dublin gang figure, Paddy Doyle, who was shot dead in the resort in January. Ger Dundon received a suspended sentence for possessing drugs for supply three years ago and has no known legitimate means of income. Doyle was one of the two feuding Dublin gangs originally based in Drimnagh and was suspected of carrying out three murders in November 2005.Last month, when Ger Dundon appeared at Limerick District Court on traffic offences, he pulled up outside the courthouse in the armoured 4X4 and summoned associates, all wearing body armour, via an external PA system built into the front grille of the car. They gathered around the car door and shielded him as he made his way to the entrance.Gardai also believe the recent upsurge of violent attacks in the city was directed from prison by Dundon's brother, the notorious gang leader Wayne Dundon. The McCarthy-Dundon gang have been building up supplies of weapons and other equipment and were said in court last year to have been behind the attempt to buy 20 automatic assault rifles, RPG rockets and handguns from people they believed to be arms dealers. It was, in fact, a sting organised by gardai and British police. Two associates of the gang were imprisoned in December for their part in the plot.
According to sources in Limerick, the McCarthy Dundons became the dominant gang force in the city last year after outgunning their deadly rivals, the Keane-Collopys. Tensions in Limerick had been rising in recent months before the latest round of murders. There have been at least a dozen shootings in the city related to the feuding. The worst, before last weekend, was the incident on March 25 when a gunman armed with an assault rifle fired shots into six houses in St Mary's Park. No one was injured but one bullet narrowly missed the head of an elderly woman sitting in her front living room watching television.At least half of the shooting incidents in the past two months have taken place in the tiny Island enclave of St Mary's Park, St Ita's Street and St Munchin's Street, directed at members of the Keane-Collopy family.Intelligence had already led gardai to strengthen their presence in the city by sending the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) from Dublin. The "less-than-lethal" Taser weapon was put at the disposal of the ERU two months ago after a recommendation by the Garda Inspector, former Boston police commissioner, Kathleen O'Toole.
After last weekend, the head of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Detective Chief Superintendent Noel White, effectively moved his headquarters from Harcourt Square in Dublin to Limerick to direct investigations.
The first murder attempt was on an 18-year-old in the city centre on January 14. A female relative of Noel Campion from Moyross, who was assassinated two years ago, was fired on two weeks later. At the end of March there were a succession of attacks on homes in the Island area where members of the Keane-Collopy clan live.
The first incident last weekend appears to be retaliation for the attacks in the Island. Gardai believe that the gangs decided to take advantage of the fact that Munster was playing Gloucester last Saturday in the Heineken European rugby cup and that many gardai would be taking the day off to enjoy the match.
At around 6am on Saturday a rock was thrown through the window of a house in O'Malley Park. The gunman then burst into the house firing an automatic handgun at a 27-year-old man as he fled upstairs. There were young children in the house at the time. No one was injured. The gunman fired another shot through the front bedroom window as he left.They began searching on Monday morning. "They were examining a mound of earth that had been disturbed and scraped away some earth. An arm popped out, literally," one source said. The gardai did not have an idea who they had found or even suspect that there had been a body at the site. It took almost a day to establish that James Cronin was missing and that it was most likely him. They believe Cronin had been buried in the shallow grave until a more permanent hiding place was found for him. In recent years Limerick gangs have begun hiding corpses in an effort to escape detection. Last week's comments by Limerick councillor John Gilligan on the unusual degree of hatred and viciousness associated with gang violence and also that children were being inducted into the gangs were backed up by local people.One local source, who asked not to be identified, said that the gang are using boys as young as seven to move drugs and guns around the city. Gang members aged only 10 to 12 were terrorising people. Parts of the city have become "no-go areas" for people because of their threats, the source said, adding: "They make the Mafia look like Mother Theresa's children."The source quoted the example of what happened in the aftermath of last year's murder of Moyross gang leader, Noely Campion. In the immediate aftermath of his murder, by the same gang suspected of carrying out last weekend's murders, his family and neighbours became the subject of a campaign of vicious intimidation. Within hours of him being gunned down in Thomand, relatives and friends were warned that they would be shot if they went to his funeral. Junior members of the gang had teeshirts printed with the legend: "Wack wack, Noely got it in the back." They wore them as they stood taunting members of the Campion family as his coffin was brought to burial, the source said.Bursts of shots were fired into the Campion house where his widow, Maureen, and their two children lived. Their car was burned out and then the house itself. Maureen Campion's sister's house next door was also burned out. Another neighbour with a severely disabled son was burned out, as was another neighbouring house because it was believed they too had attended the funeral. The attacks continued after the burning of the four houses. Shots were fired into a car driven by a young woman who was seven months pregnant, simply because she was associated with the family.

Michael Yap has described his terror as he was stared down by a masked "commando" gunman running from the Brunswick Club on the night of Lewis Moran's murder.
Michael Yap told the Supreme Court trial of Geelong man Evangelos Goussis he had just left the club and was standing on the other side of the road when he heard gunshots. He looked around and saw two men leaving the club, one of whom stared straight at him."I really felt scared at that time," Mr Yap said.
"Thank goodness he kept on running."Goussis, 40, of Bell Post Hill, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Moran, 58, who was gunned down by a balaclava-clad gunman in March 2004.It is alleged Goussis and two other men accepted a $150,000 contract from Carl Williams and Tony Mokbel to kill Moran.

Mr Yap, a quality engineer, and Brunswick Club member, told the jury he had just left the club and was walking back to his car when he heard gunshots."I heard one at first and then another one soon after and probably more after that," Mr Yap said.Mr Yap said he then saw the shotgun-wielding man running about a metre behind another man, who appeared unarmed. Both were wearing balaclavas.
He said the man with the shotgun was around "five foot, seven, maybe less (170cm)" and seemed to be "pretty agile" and "fairly athletic".
"He ran fairly quickly, he had a bit ... of like a commando look about him the way he was carrying the weapon," Mr Yap said.
Another witness, King Yip Wong, a former Pizza Hut delivery driver, told the court he saw a man chasing two men near the Brunswick Club on March 31, 2004.
Mr Wong was driving down a side alley near the club, when he saw the men. He said the second man had a mask on and was carrying two guns.
Goussis' barrister Stephen Shirrefs has previously told the court his client is not the balaclava-clad gunman seen in Brunswick Club security footage shown to the jury.
The trial before Justice Betty King continues on Monday

Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej today (Thursday) formally ordered an investigation into the conduct of a Thai policeman who shot dead a Canadian tourist and injured a second.The Thai Premier, in his role as the Chairman of the Department of Special Investigations, ordered the DSI to formally investigate charges of murder and attempted murder.The move comes in the midst of allegations that police in Pai, a picturesque tourist village in northern Thailand, deliberately attempted to cover up the actions of one of their own officers, whom they had to investigate.
The case was taken up by the Thai Human Rights Commission. Commissioner Saisuree Kosolnavin and a team found evidence that completely contradicted the investigation conducted by Police Colonel Sombat Panya of the local Pai police.Colonel Panya claimed that Canadian Leo Del Pinto, 24, from Calgary and Carly Reisig, 24, from Chilliwack, B.C. had made an unprovoked attack on Police Sergeant Uthai Dechawiwat after he broke up a fight between them in January this year.
Uthai, he claimed, shot in self defence as he fell to the ground. His automatic hada hair trigger.The police story was subsequently published in the local press and the wire stories and transmitted worldwide.Police further said that nevertheless Sgt Uthai had been charged with murder and attempted murder but on investigation there was no court record of such charges.Witnesses and forensic evidence examined by Thailand’s leading pathologist Dr. Pornthip Rojanasund however totally contradicted the police story. Forensic evidence showed that the policeman shot down into Del Pinto’s head. Witnesses said that Sergeant Uthai pistol whipped Ms Reisig before shooting her under her left breast.The conduct of the police had earlier been referred by the TNHRC to the country’s Anti-Corruption Commission.
Dr. Saisuree said: “This development is very encouraging. The process has already started as Ms. Reisig and another witness have been allowed to give evidence in court.”

A 34-year-old man who is believed to be a member of the California Hells Angels motorcycle club was arrested at his Pacifica home Thursday morning on assault charges, following several months of police investigation, the Police Department announced. At about 6 a.m., Pacifica police, in coordination with the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office and the Daly City Police Department, served search warrants in Pacifica and East Palo Alto, according to police. Rodney Gee was arrested at his home on charges of assault with a deadly weapon or force likely to produce great bodily injury, police reported. He was booked into the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office detention facility in Redwood City with bail set at $50,000.
No other information was immediately available.

At least 20 people are to be charged in court as a result of a police crackdown on a downtown drug trafficking network alleged to have ties to the Hells Angels.
The people were arrested yesterday after Operation Surface, a seven-month-long investigation into crack dealers who operated on major streets like St. Hubert St. and St. Laurent Blvd. Twenty-four people were sought on arrest warrants when Montreal police officers began searching homes in LaSalle and Lachine and tourist-room hotels where clients bought and used drugs.
"We have put an end to the operations of a trafficking network of people who claimed to be affiliated with the Hells Angels," said Commander Alain Simoneau, head of neighbourhood Station 21.Simoneau said the investigation involved work on two fronts: Uniformed officers from Station 21 maintained a regular presence on streets like St. Hubert to monitor dealers, while investigators from the drug and morality squad probed drug sales in hotels on the Main."Eventually it became clear the same network was operating in both areas," Simoneau said.
During the investigation, the Montreal police persuaded the Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux to close a bar on St. Hubert St., believing dealers were operating there.The Bar du Quartier saw its licence suspended last month. Police said the bar was a public danger because members of rival organized crime groups were clashing inside it. Several sources informed the police the bar was controlled by the Hells Angels.Police also tied other violence along the street to dealing at the bar.Police officers seized more than $75,000 worth of drugs yesterday, including more than 2,500 doses of crack cocaine. They also seized $25,000.Those arrested face charges of trafficking and conspiracy

Experts say that as many as 100,000 gang members rule the streets of Central America, most of them in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. The gangs have affiliated groups in Mexico and the United States, creating an international net of lawlessness. How many of the members are girls is not clear, though a recent study said that as many as 40 percent of the region's gang members may be females, showing off their sexuality even as they learn to strut and throw a fierce punch.
To join one of Central America's fierce street gangs, Benky, a tiny young woman wearing heavy mascara and with tattoos running up and down her arms, had to have sex with a dozen or so of her homeboys one night. She recalls sobbing uncontrollably when the last young man climbed off her and everyone gathered around to congratulate her on becoming a full-fledged member of the Mara Salvatrucha.To stay in the male-dominated gang, her leader ordered her to rob buses, grab chains off people's necks and even kill a girl from a rival gang. She always complied, although Benky is not sure if her female rival lived or died from the bullet that she fired into the girl's back.Girls in the midst of the deeply machista, or male chauvinist, gang culture thriving in Central America often find themselves straddling the line between victims and victimizers. It is abuse in their home lives that often propel them into the gangs in the first place, and those gangs often continue the abuse under the veil of protection. The gang is their adopted family, they say, offering what proves to be an unpredictable mix of affection and aggression."If a girl is getting abused by her father, the gang will step in and end it," said Gustavo Cifuentes, a streetwise former gang member with an extensive rap sheet who now works for Guatemala's government, trying to lure gang members to better, law-abiding lives.
If the girls do not follow the directions of the leader, Cifuentes acknowledged, a beating or even worse will be the result.
"There are a lot more women and girls than anyone imagined," said Ewa Werner Dahlin, the Swedish ambassador to Guatemala, whose government helped finance a Central America-wide study that included interviews with more than 1,000 past and present gang members, male as well as female. "It's a surprise to the experts, and it shows that the authorities have been reacting to gangs without really understanding them."
There are only a handful of girl-only gangs in the region, experts say, with girl gang leaders. Far more common was Benky's reality - a few young women in a sea of tough, sexually charged young men.
With four jail stints behind her, Benky, 23, is now experiencing a new phase of life, but one that is proving just as rough as those she has endured before. Getting out of a gang can be as challenging as getting in or staying in. In Benky's case, when her fellow Maras learned she was trying to abandon them, they shot her six times.After nine months of hospitalization, she now limps through life, selling candy on the buses she used to rob because her gang tattoos disqualify her from most other forms of employment. Most of those in her gang have died in shootouts with the police, she said, but one of the few still living, a man, spotted her recently on the street and yelled out a threat on her life. He was surprised that she had survived the hit."It looks so good from the outside," remarked Benky, who like others in this article asked to be identified by first names or nicknames to avoid stirring up trouble on the streets.To understand her sentiment, one must know how grim her childhood was, and those of many other gang girls. She began living on the streets, at the age of 6, with an older brother. She is not sure what happened to her mother, but she recalls her father having no interest in raising them.
Her brother was shot by a member of the 18th Street gang, which prompted her to join the other giant gang in the region, the Mara Salvatrucha. "I thought it would be like my family," she said. "I thought I'd get the love I was missing. But they'd hit me. They ordered me around. They told me I had to rob someone or kill someone, and I did it."

Serge Dupras testified in Prince Albert at the first-degree murder trial of Cluney, 33.Simard was a contract killer for the Hells Angels who later testified against the motorcycle gang. He died July 18, 2003, after being stabbed 187 times at Saskatchewan Penitentiary.
When police were investigating, Dupras told them Cluney was rising in the ranks of the Hells Angels because he helped kill Simard for the gang.
But on Thursday, he recanted that story, saying he made it up to get out of segregation.
Dupras, 53, is serving a 24-year sentence for manslaughter.Security was tight as Dupras testified. He was brought to court on a bus filled with armed guards. Officers carrying semi-automatic rifles were stationed in the courtroom and everyone entering the courthouse was searched.Crown prosecutor Robin Ritter won permission from the court to treat Dupras as a hostile witness. Ritter asked Dupras how he could turn a blind eye as a man was being stabbed to death just down the hall.
In prison, you mind your own business, Dupras replied.The trial before Queen's Bench Justice Ron Mills has been adjourned for the weekend and will resume Monday.
Last month, Cluney's co-accused, Alvin Starblanket, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. He said he acted alone. He was sentenced to life in prison with no eligibility for parole for 13 years.

Donnell "Scandalous" Jehan, 40, turned himself in to Chicago police Tuesday night. Shuffling out of a federal courtroom with his hands and feet shackled Wednesday afternoon, the alleged leader of the Black Disciples street gang refused to say why he decided to come forward.Jehan was one of 47 members and associates of the gang indicted May 2004 on federal drug conspiracy charges. The group is accused of selling as much as $300,000 per day in cocaine and heroin and laundering those profits through buildings and a record label.
"We are seeking detention both as a risk of flight and a danger to the community," U.S. Atty. Joseph Alesia told U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Cox to dissuade her from setting a bail for Jehan.
Jehan waved his right to a detention hearing. Cox ordered him to be held without bail.If convicted, Jehan's sentence may be anywhere from 10 years to life in prison, Alesia said. He also could be fined $10 million.Before he gave himself up, Jehan, formerly of the 6500 block of South Ashland Avenue, was the subject of a nationwide manhunt led by the FBI's Chicago office and was featured on the TV show "America's Most Wanted."The Black Disciples, which made Jehan its third in command, adapted the best practices of corporate America to make its millions.
Like other gangs prevalent at the time, the Black Disciples adopted a pyramid-type organization led by a CEO-like leader. Gang members paid dues and "taxes" for the right to sell drugs.Before he was charged, federal agents saw Jehan driving then-Ald. Troutman's luxury SUV, law enforcement sources said. Troutman, who was indicted last year on federal charges of taking bribes to approve a development in her ward, admitted she knew him as a businessman. She declined to say whether she had a personal relationship with Jehan.On May 12, 2004, a six-year investigation that led to the arrest of 42 Black Disciples. Jehan and four others managed to slip away.
Jehan was the last remaining fugitive sought in connection with the 2004 raid, FBI officials said. Through the years, the FBI upped the reward offered for information leading to Jehan's arrest to $20,000.
Chicago police arrested him late Tuesday night, Alesia said. He was taken into federal custody Wednesday morning.Jehan's court appointed attorney, federal defender Rachel Zebio said she did not know where Jehan has been the last four years or what prompted him to turn himself in.

Forty-5-year-old Mike Robert McCreven, 50-year-old Barry Ford, 47-year-old Carl Lee Smith and 41-year-old Terry Nolan are charged with second-degree murder and assault. They remain in jail with bail set at $1 million each after appearing Wednesday in Pierce County Superior Court.
Investigators say the four beat and stabbed 38-year-old Dana Beaudine to death Saturday night outside the Bull's Eye Sports Lounge.They told detectives Beaudine said he was part of a rival gang and insulted their group in the bar. Sheriff's detectives wrote in court filings there was no evidence that Beaudine was in a motorcycle gang, although he did own a motorcycle.

A former inmate said he was present at a prison-yard meeting when Alvin Starblanket accepted a $25,000 contract to kill police informant Aimé Simard in 2003 and that another inmate, Christopher Cluney, participated in the murder. Anthony Tawiyaka was testifying yesterday at Cluney's first-degree murder trial. His co-accused, Starblanket, pleaded guilty last week to second-degree murder in the July 18, 2003, killing. He claimed sole responsibility for the crime. Simard, 35, had been a member of a Hells Angels-affiliated gang, the Rockers, but had given evidence against other gang members in three other murders in Quebec and Nova Scotia.

Members of a motorcycle club targeted in a massive multi-agency raid that netted dozens of arrests on drug, weapons and other charges filed a federal lawsuit against law enforcement agencies involved in the probe.
The complaint alleges that members of the Vagos motorcycle club and their families were victims of unlawful search and seizure, intentional infliction of emotional distress and invasion of privacy, their lawyer, Joe Yanny, said this week.
Yanny said his clients "were subjected to domestic torture akin to waterboarding" during the March 2006 raid. The lawsuit names as defendants the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, as well as local police and sheriff's departments involved in the raid. An ATF spokeswoman told the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin her office had just learned of the suit was in the process of reviewing it with lawyers.
The raid, one of the largest coordinated law enforcement probes ever conducted in Southern California, involved some 700 law enforcement personnel.
More than 80 search and arrest warrants were issued and 25 people were taken into custody on federal or state charges that included firearms and drug violations.
The bikers' lawsuit claims that local authorities tear gassed one Vagos member's family dog and taunted another member as he was pulled from a shower naked, while federal authorities looked on. Children of the families targeted were
traumatized by the experience and at least two members lost their jobs as a result of the raid, Yanny said.

Four people were arrested on suspected drug charges, including the group's leader.Methamphetamine was found at the Gypsy Joker Motorcycle Club compound at West 19th Avenue and South Gum Street. Benton County Undersheriff Paul Hart said they needed so many officers as a "precautionary" step because the Gypsy Jokers are known to be connected to drugs and other criminal activities."It is an outlaw motorcycle gang with convicted felons who reside there," Hart said. "We gear up to meet that threat."Some stolen property and a couple of weapons also were seized, he said.
The Violent Crimes Task Force, made up of federal agents and local police detectives, raided the club house and two homes at 5 a.m.The Benton County Regional SWAT team and the Yakima SWAT team were used to help search all the buildings."Because of the large site ... it makes it difficult to secure and make sure everybody is safe," Hart said. "The Violent Crimes Task Force ... developed enough information to believe there was stolen property on this property. They don't have the manpower to effect a safe search warrant so they came to us to help."
SWAT members used loud explosives called "flash bangs" to disorient the people inside the buildings before they entered and made the arrests.Ronald B. Campbell, 57; Andrea G. Reeder, 43; Dylan C. Grose, 52; and William C. Casteel, 39, were booked into the Benton County jail on suspicion of possessing meth.Campbell is the founder and president of the Tri-City chapter of the Gypsy Jokers.Jokers say they're a fraternal club, essentially just motorcycle enthusiasts, but police say otherwise.
Officers were at the club compound about two weeks ago, and Casteel also was arrested then on a warrant for failing to comply with court orders.Wednesday's raid was connected to the March 27 arrest, but no additional details were released because the joint investigation, which involves the FBI, is still ongoing, said Robbie Burroughs, an FBI spokeswoman in Seattle.The club was started in San Francisco on April Fools' Day 1956, but moved to Washington and Oregon after losing a sometimes bloody turf dispute with the Hells Angels in 1967.Police consider the club an outlaw motorcycle gang, like the Hells Angels, because members say Jokers swear allegiance to a lifestyle often at odds with society.

Jose Franciso Cardoza Quinteros told Canadian officials that he had killed at least four people, thrown grenades into crowds of rivals and been present at the beheading of a woman by a member of his gang, also known as MS-13.Quinteros, 30, is awaiting a pre-removal risk assessment, which could take months, before it is determined if and when he will be sent back to his Central American home.The federal government wants him locked up as a danger to the public and argued before the Federal Court of Canada on Tuesday that Immigration and Refugee Board member Otto Nupponen erred when he released Quinteros on a $1,000 bond last September.Judge Dolores Hansen reserved her decision after a special sitting in downtown Vancouver.Quinteros has already had three secret refugee board hearings since arriving in B.C. in a rental vehicle driven by his sister, Mery Manzano, with her two daughters inside.The Surrey woman first claimed Quinteros was a stranger who she met at a gas station where he asked her to drive him to the border.But Manzano later came clean with Canadian border agents and confirmed Quinteros was her brother who wanted to make a refugee claim.Quinteros made startling admissions to officials with the Canada Border Services Agency during lengthy interviews on Sept. 4 and 5 during which he said he was with MS-13 from 1999 to 2004. He agreed to have his gang tattoos photographed and to show off the hand signals of the brutal crime group.He was then held in custody until a detention hearing on Sept. 13, when Nupponen said he was satisfied that Quinteros could be released into the community safely pending the outcome of his refugee claim."I can't draw the conclusion from the evidence which has been presented that even any alleged membership by you with the Mara Salvatrucha in the past translates into a current or a future danger in Canada which terms and conditions cannot address," Nupponen said in reasons that were entered Tuesday in Federal Court.But Quinteros was ruled inadmissible to Canada in a ruling Feb. 22, meaning that he is now waiting for government assessment of risks he would face if sent back to El Salvador.His lawyer Shepherd Moss argued that Quinteros poses no risk, has met all conditions since last fall and presents only a "minimal" risk to the public.He said his client later recanted the sensational statement he gave border officials, even though the refugee board ruling said the Salvadoran was in fact linked to the violent gang.Immigration department lawyer Caroline Christiaens said Tuesday the judge should overturn Nupponen's order releasing Quinteros and send the case back to another refugee board member for a new detention review.She went through the litany of offences admitted by Quinteros to Canadian officials, including throwing 20 grenades at rival gangs."We would get together to make plans of what we were going to do . . . like for example, go at night to the neighbourhood of the enemies to throw grenades," Quinteros said. "We would say: 'We are the Mara Salvatrucha' and we just throw grenades in between them."
Quinteros has been in jail in the U.S., Mexico and El Salvador. He admitted being arrested 50 or 60 times.He told Canadian officials that he had risen to the rank of "treasurer." But he said he was forced to quit MS-13 after some members believed he had betrayed them.He pointed to scars all over his body: "This one they broke a bottle of beer, this was with a knife." Another wound came from a machete wielded by a member of his own gang.When the border agent asked if he had arranged any murders, Quintero replied: "I never made any plans, but I was present once when they cut off the head of a woman and they showed the head in the parking lot of the National Police."He was then asked if he had "ever disfigured someone? Have you ever cut someone's limb off?""I think yes, when I throw the grenade," Quinteros said.He said he had probably killed two people in shootings and another "two or three people" in grenade attacks.His last murder came during "a meeting that we planned in a neighbourhood named Milagro. Our rivals were there - the 18s - and we attacked them.
"I remember hitting someone with bullets in his chest and I got two wounds, gun wounds, in my leg."Central American prosecutors are in B.C. this week to meet with police and government officials, including border services and the refugee board, to exchange intelligence about the gang problem and connections between the two regions and organized crime groups.

More and more individuals with connections to Mara Salvatrucha and MS-18 are showing up at the refugee board and before Canadian courts.

Just last month, the Federal Court granted the right to an appeal to Salvadoran refugee claimant Wilber Orlando Cartagena, who said he could be killed by MS-18 if he was forced to return to El Salvador.Another Salvadoran who admitted to being a member of Mara Salvatrucha - Roberto Ernesto Contreras Mendoza - remains in Vancouver while a judicial review of his status continues.Quinteros described how the gangs control the drug trade throughout Central America, Mexico and into the U.S., as well as committing violent robberies and extortions within their own communities for money and to instill fear.
They would organize large street fights with enemies, Quinteros said.
"Every time we got involved in these fights, it was about 500 members of us. . . . I mean the people that have been killed by gang member of my group, I cannot say that I killed them," he said.
"In the battles, many die. In each battle, there were 15 or 20 dead. I was present in the battle - in a fight - when I was in jail where 300 were dead."

The Mexican crime family known to South Sound law enforcement agencies as the Barragan Drug Trafficking Gang source of much of the methamphetamine smuggled into Western Washington and the Western U.S.- was rolled up last week in a multistate wave of arrests. Authorities believe they have successfully dismantled the organization with the arrests of 22 members, many of whom lived in Thurston, Cowlitz, Grays Harbor and Pacific counties. Nineteen others also face charges in connection with drug trafficking. The Barragan business was no small enterprise. Officials say the tight-knit crime ring efficiently smuggled about 200 pounds of crystal methamphetamine into the United States each month. In Western Washington, the outfit used the Olympia-Lacey region as a staging area, selling about half its product locally and shipping the rest to other parts of the country. The organization's activities in the region stretch back a couple decades, and it controlled the meth trade along the Interstate 5 corridor. One reason authorities believe they have put the family out of business is that the latest arrests, capping 14 months of investigation by more than 30 local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, include two Barragan brothers and three of their cousins, all considered key to the operation. The market for imported meth has exploded in recent years as new state and local laws have made it difficult for addicts to obtain materials for manufacturing homemade meth. While meth-lab busts are way down -- a good thing indeed -- the demand from users remains strong. Such a lucrative market for illicit drugs means that it is almost certain that other criminal entrepreneurs will try to take the Barragan family's place. The Barragan family itself might be capable of staging a resurgence. Nonethless, any victory in the permanent war on drugs is worth celebration. Last week's take-down of the Barragan DTO resulted from textbook persistence and cooperation among law enforcement agencies. It was great police work and a great win for community safety in the South Sound.

'Trauma, Drug Misuse and Transforming Identities: A Life Story Approach' by Professor Kim Etherington. Kim's book looks at the lives of ex-drug users told in their words. It illustrates the links between early childhood experiences and drug misuse, and also shows pathways to recovery and transformation.
The book illustrates how some people use drugs, in particular heroin, as a coping mechanism to help them deal with traumatic experiences in their childhood. Such trauma may have involved chronic parental neglect, physical and emotional abuse by parents, sexual abuse by a family member, rape by a stranger, or racial abuse and harassment.
Heroin and other opiates are used medically as analgesics to reduce physical pain, but they also alleviate psychological pain. It is not surprising that a traumatised person may use heroin as a coping mechanism and take up the heroin-using lifestyle. Becoming part of the heroin-using culture can also be of 'therapeutic value' because the person associates with other heroin users who may identify with their problems and past experiences. Some of these people will have had similar experiences.
Most non-drug users do not see beyond the heroin user stereotype - the 'dirty, devious, criminal junkie'. They do not stop to think that the heroin user may have experienced a traumatic childhood and have started along a path to addiction as a natural response to trying to deal with their resulting anguish and psychological pain. They did not set out to become an addict, and they very likely did not know the addictive potential of heroin and the heroin-using lifestyle.
These same non-drug users may have no problems at all with other people going to their doctor because they felt anxious or 'down' and being readily prescribed with anti-anxiety drugs (that are highly addictive) or anti-depressants. The distress these people are experiencing may be minimal compared to the heroin user described above and the necessity for prescribed drug use unjustified. However, the person wants to feel they are being 'treated', the doctor wants to keep the patient happy, and the drug company (which some people might argue is a legal drug dealer in certain circumstances) makes its profits.
We are in a hypocritical society which on the one hand demonises use of illegal drugs - without thinking about why these drugs might be used - whilst at the same time encouraging people to take legal prescribed drugs, which are in many cases more dangerous than legal drugs.
And we get bigoted comments like that reported to have been made by Tory MP David Davies last week - 'Taxpayers will be outraged that so much of their money is going to junkies and winos who will use the money simply to fund their disgusting habits.' Such people need to move past the end of their noses and get a dose of reality - assuming that they understand or care about problems experienced by other people. They must stop making naive and nasty generalisations.

Health expert has been charged with devising a strategy to reduce the financial toll of alcohol, drugs and cigarettes.Health Minister Nicola Roxon announced the establishment of the taskforce _ to be led by the professor of global health at the Nossal Institute of Global Health, Dr Rob Moodie _ as she released a report showing that in 2004-2005, the social cost of alcohol, tobacco use and illicit drugs was about $56 billion.Ms Roxon described the figures as "staggering''.
"That's an enormous amount of money and that's not just the health cost to individuals or to the health system, it's also the flow-on costs in terms of crime, lost productivity at work, people taking time off to care for others,'' she said.
"So it's a very detailed analysis and a reminder to us of why it's so important to focus on prevention.''
The taskforce has been charged with developing a National Preventative Health Strategy by June 2009, with a focus on tobacco, alcohol and obesity.
It will also provide interim recommendations to be included in the Australian Health Care Agreements between the commonwealth, states and territories in July this year.
Ms Roxon said Australia needed a long-term strategy to ease the cost on communities.
She said the time was ripe for a new approach.
"I think the time is right for there to be a real shift in community thinking about the way we handle some of our health problems,'' she said. "Health problems are not just about fixing hospitals, we actually have to fix some of the things that mean people end up in hospital.''
The Rudd Government has committed $68 million to programs to cut binge drinking by young people and smoking by indigenous Australians.
But while Treasury has been asked to report on the economic benefits of the focus on disease prevention, the Government's threat of a razor gang budget next month means funding for other initiatives is likely to be pushed out for another year.
The commonwealth spent almost $43 billion on health in 2007-08, about 18 per cent of its total expenditure.
But that pales next to the estimates detailed in the report Costs of Tobacco, Alcohol and Illicit Drug Abuse, prepared by David Collins of Macquarie University and Helen Lapsley of the universities of Queensland and NSW.
Cigarettes accounted for more than half the annual costs to the community in 2004-05, at $31.5 billion, including $15.5 billion in lost productivity.
Alcohol was the next biggest offender, racking up a bill of $15.3 billion, including $3.5 billion in lost productivity and $3.1billion in road accidents.
Illicit drug use had an $8.2billion toll, with almost half the costs due to crime.

Pete Doherty was jailed for 14 weeks yesterday after he admitted breaching a court order designed to cure his drug addiction. The Babyshambles frontman was expected to wake up in a cell in Wormwood Scrubs prison this morning after admitting missing appointments with the probation service.
His lawyer said tests as part of the order showed Doherty had still been using class A drugs. It is the longest spell he has faced in jail since 2003, when he was convicted of burglary. The sentence means Doherty will miss out on performing at the Glastonbury festival in June.

new ambition for all hostels to provide access to support, training and employment within the next three years to help end persistent rough sleeping, was announced today by Housing Minister Iain Wright. The Minister published an action plan to reduce rough sleeping to as close to zero as possible, with new measures to help those who have remained entrenched on the streets.
He announced a new aspiration for hostels to provide access to training and employment opportunities, supported by the £160 million the Government has put in place to refurbish hostels and improve their services by 2011. The Minister invited stakeholders involved in rough sleeping to join in the discussion on a package of measures to underpin the strategy, including:
* A renewed drive to identify and engage with the most persistent rough sleepers to get them off the streets and into a more stable environment, minimising the risk of falling back into old routines and old patterns of dependency. Groups such as older drinkers have historically been harder to reach and new models may be needed to get them in off the streets, such as personalised support.
* Universal access to skills programmes in hostels to develop an individual's talents and boost their confidence in stepping up and out of insecurity and dependency. The Government's £160 million investment in projects to reduce rough sleeping also includes an academy in London, which will provide former rough sleepers with opportunities to develop skills in areas of employment as diverse as restaurant management to cookery skills.
* A new London homeless taskforce, bringing together the Government, the voluntary sector and local authorities to better tackle rough sleeping. These key players will help to put the right solutions in place for people with complex needs, preventing them slipping through the net and back onto the streets. It will have a pan-London focus to effectively tackle rough sleeping across the capital.
* The provision of 500 units of private rented accommodation in London to enable those who are ready to move out of hostels, but still need some level of support, to live independently. This will free up hostel spaces for those coming in from the cold and help prevent hostels 'silting up' with those who are ready to make the next step.
* Increased working across government to ensure the one stop shops can provide tangible, practical support across a range of homeless issues. As well as providing skills the hostels will provide specific support for those in need, for example making sure that those with dependencies such as drugs or alcohol have access to the services they need.
Whilst huge progress has been made reducing the number of rough sleepers from 1,800 in 1997 to around 500 on any given night, the challenge now is help the remaining persistent rough sleepers make a permanent move away from the streets, especially in London. Some have been in a 'revolving door of homelessness' entering hostels dozens of times a year but coming back onto the streets only days later.