An anti-gang unit of the RCMP is being deployed to the North to assist local police forces after a rise in organized crime was reported in rural B.C. communities.
The northern office of the provincial Uniform Gang Enforcement Team will be based in Prince George, south of the Peace region. The office was established in response to an increasing need for this kind of policing support. The team will contain an administrative worker, who will assist eight uniformed gang enforcement officers, and is expected to be operational next year.
“Organized crime groups continue to expand drug trafficking routes and move weapons through northern B.C., increasingly targeting remote and rural communities,” the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit of B.C. wrote in their announcement.
The new team will target violent criminals and gang members by disrupting their activities and seizing illegal goods, including cash, guns and drugs.
While deployed in Fort St. John, Dawson Creek and Nanaimo last month, police seized $17,725 in cash, firearms and other weapons. The unit also confiscated about one kilogram of drugs during stops in the three communities, according to a social media update from the CFSEU.
A full report, with a breakdown as to exactly how much of the cash, weapons, and unspecified drugs, came from the Peace region is not available.
“This new team will help to keep people and businesses in northern communities safe from the violence of criminal gang activities,” said Nina Krieger, the province’s Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General.
“October saw an uptick in gang related conflict in Fort St John and (the) region which included three occurrences of shots fired, which resulted in one person being wounded with non-life-threatening injuries,” the Fort St John RCMP wrote in their October update for the city council.
“Assistance from the uniformed gang enforcement team (UGET) was sought to be deployed in Fort St John and area and the team arrived on November 1.”
A need for this team was identified by the province. The CFSEU said they visited the north six times in the first nine months of this year, compared to 28 times in total from 2020 and 2024.
