BURST
Law enforcement agencies from B.C. and Washington state exchanged the latest intelligence on transnational organized crime groups operating across the border at a forum in Victoria on Tuesday.
B.C. Public Safety Minister Nina Krieger said the issue of Mexican cartels, as well as trends in cross-border drug smuggling, were part of the discussions at the forum attended by 100 participants from both countries.
And despite trade tensions at the federal level between the Canadian and U.S. governments, the relationships between law enforcement agencies in the Pacific Region remain strong, Krieger said.
“It’s certainly an important opportunity for law enforcement partners to engage in information sharing but also the exchange of ideas and strategies and approaches that are certainly important for tackling crimes which are transnational and ever-evolving and complex,” Krieger said. “Criminals do not respect borders and our efforts to enforce to prevent crime to strengthen partnerships across agencies also has to be transnational.”
B.C.’s top Mountie, RCMP Asst. Commissioner John Brewer, said that cross-border intelligence sharing has already helped police in this province take action against cartels.
“We have been able to share critical information and work on files together which has gone a long ways into two things: us having a better understanding of how the cartels are trying to work in this area on either side of the border, but also allowing us to intercede in some of their attempts to get into our communities and embed themselves,” he said.
The RCMP worked closely with the FBI in Operation Hardball, the massive investigation targeting the Lawrence Bishnoi gang and two other transnational criminal organizations involved in murder-for-hire, extortion and drug trafficking. Four B.C. men were among 37 charged on California indictments.
While more charges have been laid in the U.S. than in Canada in cross-border cases, Brewer said there are continuing investigations in B.C.
“I will say that with every investigation we enter into the goal … to get into the courts and get a successful prosecution but as you can appreciate these take a very long time,” he said. “We’ve got a number of ongoing, obviously, and I will say that working with our counterparts down in Washington state, we have been able certainly to allow both agencies to figure out where we’re going to conduct the investigation towards a successful court conclusion, meaning sometimes it makes more sense for it to be down in the United States, sometimes in Canada. So that’s one of the factors we’re continually assessing.”
Krieger said that B.C. has also used civil forfeiture legislation to go after millions of dollars in assets owned by some of the accused in the Hardball probe. She said that the forum has focused on the challenges of “polycriminality.”
“These networks are involved in multiple criminal enterprises and just that requires co-ordination, collaboration between agencies and across jurisdictions in order to be effective,” she said.
In terms of the current trends in illicit commodity smuggling, methamphetamine and fentanyl remain a concern. But there has been an increase in the amount of cocaine coming into B.C., Brewer said.
“We’re finding (cocaine) increasing at the local level. I’m not seeing that big trend towards it moving along to another transnational organization. But that’s the concern and that’s why ourselves and our counterparts in Washington (state) are working very closely on that to make sure that that doesn’t occur.”
Washington state Patrol Chief John Batiste said the forum “continues doing exactly what we set out to do 20 years ago which is to enhance communications and collaboration amongst law enforcement in order to help us better serve the communities we’re in place to serve and protect.
“It’s done a tremendous job at that.”
Bluesky: @kimbolan.bsky.social