Surrey RCMP says its gang enforcement team is continuing its “enhanced targeted enforcement” following several gang-related shootings in the Lower Mainland in recent weeks.
Police are continuing “ongoing strategic enforcement designed to disrupt and suppress gang activity in Surrey,” according to a release from Surrey RCMP Tuesday (Jan. 12).
Since Dec. 27, there have been six reported shootings in the Lower Mainland, with three in Surrey, two in Richmond and one in Coquitlam. They have resulted in five fatalities.
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“Each of the recent homicides in Surrey has a nexus to criminal activity or gang activity and because of this, there is potential for further retaliation among individuals involved,” reads the release.
Surrey RCMP said to “mitigate the risk of violence” in the city, police have taken “direct action to target gang activity.”
The Surrey Gang Enforcement Team has been “deployed with an aggressive plan to target criminals who put the community at risk,” adding the plan “prioritizes those individuals who pose the highest risk to public safety because of their actions, affiliations, involvement with gangs, and drug trafficking in the province.”
Between Jan. 6 and 10, the gang enforcement team conducted 21 establishment check for the Inadmissible Patron Program, resulting in one person associated to the Lower Mainland gang conflict being removed from a restaurant or bar; 13 “outlaw motorcycle gang” clubhouse checks; 15 curfew checks of Lower Mainland gang conflict “participants” currently living in Surrey; and nine drug investigations, resulting in the seizure of three vehicles.
The Surrey Gang Enforcement Team is working with all regional gang units.
READ: One dead after two separate shootings just hours apart in Lower Mainland, Jan. 10, 2021
lauren.collins@surreynowleader.com
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