FYI - This from CBC News Online this morning:
Organized crime targets
N.W.T. diamond mines
WebPosted Thu Nov 11 08:13:57 1999
YELLOWKNIFE - Police and a Canadian mining
company are cracking down on gangs they
say are targeting the country's emerging
diamond industry in the North.
The Criminal Intelligence Service Canada
says organized criminals based in Edmonton
have been gaining a foothold in the industry,
and plan to illegally divert gems from the Ekati
mine.
The company that runs Ekati, north of
Yellowknife, says it's aware of efforts to
infiltrate the mine, and has a strategy in place.
The scheme includes tactics such as
supplying drugs to mine workers in exchange
for diamonds.
Ekati plans to counter the plan with urine tests,
searches of personal effects, body searches,
or in extreme cases, body cavity searches,
said Graham Nicholls of BHP Diamonds Inc.
Police believe Asian gangs based in
Edmonton are laying the groundwork for a
network that could attempt to steal millions of
dollars in gems.
"There are definitely some groups looking at
trying to infiltrate the system," said Sgt. Jim
Fisher, a CISC investigator who specializes in
Asian-based organized crime.
Fisher believes organized criminals are trying
to get a foothold in the North, with its emerging
diamond industry. First, by developing a
market for things such as prostitution,
gambling and illegal drugs -- much of which is
being supplied from Edmonton.
"They want to be established in that
community, so that they are the drug suppliers
people go to."
Once they become well known as the supplier
of illicit materials, or services, Fisher says the
criminals look for customers who work in the
diamond mines.
"They get people in their debt; through
blackmail, through addiction, through money
owed, and then have those debts paid off
through stealing diamonds."
In anticipation of the growing criminal activity
surrounding northern mines, the RCMP has
established a two-person diamond unit in
Yellowknife.
One of the officers is taking a two-year
gemology course, specializing in diamonds.
Officers have also been sent to mines in other
countries to learn what techniques are used to
steal diamonds.
Regards.Goalie. |
