Canada, Camera aimed at organized crime

OFF THE WIRE
BY: BOB BOUGHNER
Source: chathamdailynews.ca
Newly-acquired spy material by the Chatham-Kent Police Service will take aim at known criminals and outlaw motorcycle gang members.

Deputy Chatham Police Chief Clare Wiersma said there are individuals in Chatham-Kent that are associated with the notorious Hell's Angels motorcycle gang.


Wiersma said the state-of-the-art equipment, which cost more than $32,000, will basically be used for covert surveillance across Chatham-Kent.

The equipment was purchased with funding from the provincial government's Robin Hood fund.

Ontario Attorney General Chris Bentley said the money came from the province's civil forfeiture law - the Civil Remedies Act.

Bentley said the Act allows him to ask the civil courts for orders to freeze, take possession of and forfeit to the Crown property that is determined to be a proceed or an instrument of unlawful activity.

More than $13 million has been collected under the program since 2003.

Bentley referred to the Robin Hood fund as "taking from the bad and giving it to the good.''