The gang landscape in Vancouver used to mainly consist of Italian mafia elements with connections back east, with other pockets of various ethnic gangs which would later rise to prominence as the Big Circle Boys and Triads.
In the 1980’s the Hell’s Angels began to establish their presence, further consolidating their gains, and forming alliances with other criminal gangs. The dynamics began to shift in the late 80’s, when various street gangs affiliated with Indian separatist groups such as Babbar Khalsa arrived. Gangsters had a big presence already in Surrey at the time of the Air India bombing, which rose in the early 90’s with the ascent of Punjabi mafia clans like the Dosanjh brothers.
 | For the next two decades, new gangs would come and go, and rise to power and prominence like the UN gang, Independent Soldiers, Red Scorpions, and Bacon Brothers. The Independent Soldiers, and Red Scorpions, would later go on to form an alliance with the Hells Angels known as the Wolfpack Alliance. At the same time, Mexican cartels were consolidating distribution networks in British Columbia, importing their members from Mexico as pointmen and soldiers after visa restrictions on Mexican nationals were lifted. Their alliance with the Wolfpack was key. |
The Sinaloa Cartel had a long established relationship with the Khalistan Tiger Force, which they used as connections to Middle East drug lords in Pakistan, and Iran to supply heroin. They worked with Indo-Canadian gangs to consolidate their hold on the lower mainland gang landscape. With the Khalistan Tiger Force’s experience in laundering money for Pakistani and Iranian drug lords, the partnership with the Sinaloa Cartel was a match made in heaven. The Hells Angels eventually found themselves being squeezed out of the domestic drug distribution networks, but saw business opportunities elsewhere: the lucrative Australian and New Zealand drug trade routes, which they could control through the Port of Vancouver, became theirs.
The Khalistan Tiger Force and Sinaloa Cartel are now HA suppliers. The Port of Vancouver is the point of origin for fentanyl from China. Chinese Criminal organizations, which have alliances with the Sinaloa Cartel and Khalistan Tiger Force, has product transshipped to the United States, and more lucrative markets like Australia, and New Zealand. Cocaine and meth can command much higher prices than in North America. With the Khalistani experience in money laundering, the Mexican Cartel launders a significant portion of their profits by owning agricultural land, businesses and real estate in British Columbia by using Khalistan Tiger Force members as proxies through which the cartel is the ultimate beneficial owners.
Gangsterism Out 