Gangs in Canada

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Canadian Gangs are usually present in large metropolitan cities, but that doesn't mean their actions are confined to urban areas only.

Types

Some of the most prominent gang types in Canada are: 

• Drug Trafficking.
• Organized Crime Groups and Mafias include East Asian Organized Crime, Aboriginal Based Organized Crime, Indian Organized Crime.
• Youth/Street Gangs
• OMGs (Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs)

As claimed by a police report in 2004, “The Hell Angels” remains one of the largest and highly influential Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs in both the westernmost and east-central provinces of Canada, respectively known as Ontario and British Columbia. However, their occupancy has gone smaller in other provinces because of effective police activities, civil strife, and greater influence of other rivalry crime groups. 

According to a similar source of the report, Aboriginal Street Gangs are not that much efficient as other prominent criminal bodies in Canada. However, they are still regarded as the most extremist ones. People of Aboriginal origin have added up a massive proportion of the population in Canadian Prisons and the ratio of First Nation inmates constantly increases at a higher rate. In 2005 number of Aboriginal Street Gangs, youth members topped over 1000.

As specified by the CISC (Criminal Intelligence Service Canada), Triad groups of Hong Kong and other influential syndicates of crime that are not just well organized but well supported are the biggest influential threat to both Canadian societies as well as its law enforcement. 

Moreover, other prominent criminal groups of Asian ethnicity, particularly The Big Circle Gang, have extensively built their network in all large metropolitan Canadian cities. 

By City

Edmonton

Black (Somali/Central African/Jamaican), Aboriginal, Central/Eastern European, East Asian (Filipino/Chinese/Vietnamese), and Middle Eastern (Lebanese/Persian) are some of the significant crime groups in Edmonton. These gangs are accompanied by other additional crime groups in Edmonton includes Biker Gangs, Hispanic Gangs, Punjabi Street Gangs, and Aryan Nation groups.

Nonetheless, the recent increase in the actions of OMGs (Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs) and the arrival of Mexican drug cartels is altering the crime of highly organized criminal groups in Alberta and other prominent cities of Edmonton, including Calgary.

Hamilton

At one stage, Hamilton was a focal point for prominent criminals, including Johnny Papalia of the famous criminal family "Papalia," and Rocco Perri. Mobsters killings in the year 2017, as well as 2018, proved that the group still exists and is very much active. According to the police, after the murder of the realtor named Al Iavaronein September 2018, the action was retaliation due to the previous criminal activities against the criminal family of Musitano, because of the dispute among the two mobster Nigerian Groups that had a close association with Buffalo mob of New York. 

As of the recent report, there has been an increase in mafia organized crimes in both the regions of Hamilton and Toronto over the last couple of years that leaves a notion of "fight for control" to be believed by the police. Rocco Luppino’s son, Cece Luppino, was murdered right in front of his paternal house on 30th January 2019. Luppino family is also famous for its criminal background. 

Abbotsford

Some of the major crime gangs in Abbotsford include Motorcycle Gangs, Punjabi Street Gangs, Multicultural Street Gangs, and numerous East Asian criminal gangs.

Nevertheless, there exists a huge conflict among the gangs in the urban area of the West end party of the Townhill land. Conflict is between the two South Asian gang groups that include 40 men aging from 15 to 25 years old.

According to a report of Abbotsford Youth Crime Prevention, they projected that the youth is more likely to become a part of major crime groups. 

Calgary

Punjabi Street Gangs & Black Street Gangs, Aboriginal Street, Middle Eastern/Lebanese Organized Crime Groups, East Asian (Vietnamese/Chinese/Filipino) Street Gangs, Mexican Drug Cartels, Sudanese/Somali drug trafficker gangs, Biker Gangs, Pakistani (Pashtun and Kashmiri) Street Gangs, and Afghan Street Gangs are some of the prominent crime groups operating in Calgary. 

A bloody war took place between the two rivalry groups (East Asian) 2002-2009, known as FOB and FK gangs, that ended up in the killing of 25 members from both sides. The rivalry wasn’t just between the East Asians but involved both White and Black (who were East Indians) members of the gangs. Disagreement among the community of Middle Eastern (some were Lebanese) broke out due to the illegal distribution of a drug known as Fentanyl, somewhat similar to that of Asian Street Gangs of the early 2000s coming from different ethnic backgrounds.

Ottawa

East Asian Criminal Organizations, Arab Street Gangs, and Biker Gangs are some of the major crime gangs residing in Ottawa. Numerous crime groups exist in Ottawa, and “Somali” being one of them. By the early 20th century, there were hardly any cases of drive-by shootings; the only crime was an illegal distribution of narcotic drugs.

Halifax

Biker gangs have played a very prominent role in the criminal scenes carried out in Halifax during the early 1980s and 1990s. Nevertheless, the activities of biker gangs are being restricted from the Eastern area of Canada because of the Biker War of Quebec. Prominent gangsta rap, known as Crisps and Bloods, is associated with Halifax gang groups. Biker gangs have a close association with each other. Hence, they do not allow outsiders to form an association among them.

Greater Toronto Area

Organized crime activities such as human trafficking, drug trafficking, robbery, firearm trafficking, and mob/mafia activities were experienced by the neighborhoods of Toronto. According to the survey from police, youth gangs and members of greater Toronto area gangs are from different ethnic backgrounds that include South Asian (Tamil/Afghan/Indian/Punjabi/Pakistani), Caribbean/African (Jamaican/Guyanese/Somali/Haitian), and Caucasian (Polish/Greek/Spanish/Russian/Italian/Portuguese/Albanian). There are also reports of the existence of Latino groups and East Asians.

Even though the percentage of murders is lately on the lower side in Toronto, but there has been resurgence in the violence of gun shooting in the vital areas of greater Toronto, two of which are the most prominent shooting incidents. One was a shootout among rivalry groups that led to the death of a bystander name Jane Creba (a 15 years old boy) on 26th December 2005 on the Streets of Yonge. Similarly, another shooting incident occurred at the food court of Eaton Centre Mall that led to injuring seven people and two deaths, including Hassan (a 13-year-old bo)y who was actually targeted and was a member of the gang, while the rest were innocent bystanders.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) carried out a raid known as Project OPhoenix in 2015 across the areas of greater Toronto, which resulted in an arrest of almost 19 men that were in the association of greater mafia organization famously known as 'Ndrangheta. The interrogation revealed that the gang was very much active as recently as of 2015, involving in activities such as cocaine trafficking, bank frauds, and mortgage.

Two penalties for cocaine trafficking to assist a criminal association and one on the conspiracy of carrying out a serious/indictable offense was confronted by Giuseppe (Pino) Ursino and Romanian-born Cosmin (Chris) Dracea of the Toronto area. The trial that took place in the Supreme Court of Toronto in 2018 was the very first trial that had targeted ‘Ndrangheta, one of the biggest mafia organizations since the criminal code amendment took place in 1997 to incorporate the term "criminal." Without a doubt, neither of the respondents confessed to having been important for that association. Both were sentenced for conspiracy of drug smuggling. At the time of sentencing, the directing judge remarks as, "Based on the evidence at trial, Giuseppe Ursino is a high-ranking member of the 'Ndrangheta who orchestrated criminal conduct and then stepped back to lessen his potential implication... Cosmin Dracea knew he was dealing with members of a criminal organization when he conspired to import cocaine".

Tom Andreopolus, deputy chief of Federal prosecutor, remarked on the 'Ndrangheta crime organization after the trial of Darcea/Ursino:

"We're talking about structured, organized crime. We're talking about a political entity, almost; a culture of crime that colonizes across the sea from Italy to Canada. This is one of the most sophisticated criminal organizations in the world."

Cosimo Commiso of Woodbridge, Ontario, & an unlinked female both got killed in a drive-by shooting in June 2018. As indicated by the Toronto Star sources, Commiso had associations with Cosimo "The Quail" Commisso of Siderno, Italy, who had influential links in Ontario, as he was believed (by the Canadian police) to be the boss of the criminal organization ‘Ndrangheta. Paolo Caputo was killed at his own restaurant in the city of Richmond Hill, of Ontario, reportedly on 16th August 2019. As of the police sources, Caputo had strong ties with the leader of the Montreal mob association, Vito Rizzutothat (who died in the year 2013).

One of the police agent during the interrogation of an obvious mob hit (in September 2018) of Albert Iavarone, mentioned, "If you look back over the last couple years there has been a number of murders, a number of bombings, a number of arsons throughout the GTA and up to as far as Montreal. It is our belief that there is something going on in the underworld. We are not sure if this particular case factor into that but is something we are alive to".

Montreal

Major crime gangs in Montreal involve Caucasians mostly (Russian, Irish, Italian, French) but also includes some of the minority groups, such as Hispanic, Lebanese, Jamaican, Haitian, Cambodian descent, Sri Lankan, or Asian. Modest and joined units of street gangs are comprised of mostly youths that have spread over different areas such as, Parc-Extension, Saint-François, St-Michel, NDG, Montréal-Nord, Côte-des-Neiges, Rivière-des-Prairies, Ville Saint-Laurent (St-Low) and in the neighborhoods of Laval and St-Léonard

Metro Vancouver

Some of the major crime gangs in Vancouver include East Asian Street Gangs (Asian-Chinese Triads/Vietnamese Drug Gangs), Punjabi Street Gangs.  There are several other gangs, including (European, Persian, Italian, and Eastern), Motorcycle Gang Groups (the Hells Angels), as claimed by the law enforcement agencies. Other minor gang groups, including Aboriginal Street Gangs along with the Mexican Drug Cartels, have spread in the metropolitan areas of Vancouver. But, the multiculturalism of street gangs has significantly grown in both prominence and power and gained the attention of the media because of their numerous drive-by shooting and gun violence across the city that also includes a massive Vancouver gang war in 2009.

As per the CFSEU-BC (Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit of British Columbia) report, people that died via “160 gang-related killings” from January 2006 to March 2014 came from different ethnic backgrounds, including:

• White/Caucasian (74 victims; 46.3 percent)
• East Asian (mostly Chinese or Vietnamese) (33 victims; 20.6 percent)
• South Asian (mostly Punjabis) (34 victims; 21.3 percent)
• Central Asian (predominantly Persians) (10 victims; 6.3 percent)
• Hispanic (Three victims; 1.9 percent)
• First Nations (Six victims; 3.8 percent)
• African/Caribbean (0 victims; 0 percent)

Winnipeg

Gang activities in Winnipeg mainly come from Aboriginals. Apart from that, there are other smaller groups of different ethnicities such as East Asian (Vietnamese/Filipino), African crime groups, and European. Winnipeg is also famously known as the Capital of the Aboriginal Gang of Canada.

Saskatchewan

In Saskatchewan, most of the adult gangs are of Aboriginal origin. The largest and prominent gang group activities mostly take place in areas of both Saskatoon and Regina. These youth gangs are completely of Aboriginal origin. Saskatchewan reported the highest ratio (1.34 per 1000) of gang membership in the whole of Canada in 2002. There exist almost 108 gangs in the region of Prairie.

Surrey

Some of the prominent gang groups in the city include Biker Gangs, East Asian (mostly Vietnamese) Street Gangs, and South Asian (mainly Punjabi) Street Gangs. Crime groups in Surrey led to an increase in the rate of murder though it diminished with time. Reports from the police stated that the sharp decline in the murder rate was because perpetrators had already fled away. Today, most of the gangs are battling out mainly in the Newton Community of Surrey as well as among the community of South Asians.

Scarborough

Scarborough reports numerous tribes of gang groups, but the most important crime groups that are to be seen include West Indian (Caribbean) Street Gangs, Tamil Street Gangs, Afghan Street Gangs, Pakistani Street Gangs, and Chinese Street Gangs.

Brampton

Crime groups in Brampton that have major influence involve Black crime groups and South Asians but also include a few of the Filipino, White, and Portuguese gangs within the city.

Burnaby

In Burnaby, the criminal gangs mostly come from ethnic groupings inside Vancouver city.