Amidst rash of shootings, organized crime groups are becoming less organized: Calgary police

A recent increase in gun violence in Calgary and broad daylight shootings in residential areas is raising questions about the presence of gangs and organized crime in the city.

While the Calgary Police Service has confirmed these shootings are linked to organized crime, they also say organized crime groups in Calgary are less structured than they have seen previously.

“The conflict is fluid and it changes just as fast as we get a handle on who these groups are,” said Acting Deputy Chief Cory Dayley. “Their motives change, their affiliations and allegiances in the group change and so it creates this sort of consistent conflict.

“These groups are formed and align themselves for different reasons: family, historic friendships, but also for financial gain. Within these groups, infighting occurs that leads to fractures,” Calgary police said in a statement to CityNews.

But, Mount Royal University Professor Doug King worries the way these gangs are operating now, as compared to in the past, could be very dangerous for the community.

“Tit for tat revenge kind of thing right now, I think that makes it much much less kind of organized than what we would normally expect,” explained the justice studies professor. “And then the fact that a 14-year-old has been charged with a first degree murder tells you that it isn’t cohesive. It is the gang’s actual use and [exploitation of} other people to get their aim, and so it’s less organized than you would think — it’s more loosely organized but they all have a common goal, and that’s to make money.”

The two teens charged in the killing of a 23-year-old man in a northeast parking lot Monday made their first court appearance Thursday.

CityNews has learned they were waiting to join a program intended to help kids escape gang culture.

They had been on the waitlist for six months.

“I have to wonder if they had been able to get on to our program right when they were referred — would those people, would that person still be alive? Would those other people not be injured? Would these two be on a different trajectory now, where they’re already well on their way to being active citizens that are participating well in our society?” said Anila Umer Lee Yuen, president and CEO at the Calgary Centre for Newcomers, which runs the program.

Lee Yuen says their efforts are directed towards early prevention for troubled youth, but when the situation becomes as complex as right now, then the matters are in the hands of law enforcement agencies.

CPS says they are currently monitoring approximately 350 offenders in Calgary who have ties to organized crime and they are collecting intelligence on these individuals to help prevent and suppress violence in the city.