Karena Walter,
Source: wellandtribune.ca
Canada - They are a quieter, but not necessarily a gentler,
breed of officer.
Their roar can be heard all the way to the bank.
While other cops raid imposing fortresses, like that of the Niagara Hells Angels, storming through fences in riot gear, they are meticulously running the numbers.
"Nothing hurts a criminal infrastructure more than removal of their criminal assets," said Det. St. Sgt. Robin Irwin of the OPP's Organized Crime Enforcement Bureau's Provincial Asset Forfeiture Unit.
"We attack the infrastructure of the criminal organization and bankrupt it. Bottom line is criminal bankruptcy."
Last year, the unit seized more than $22 million in assets and had more than $9.6 million forfeited by owners.
It's made up of 53 police officers from 21 different police agencies in Ontario.
The fact the Hells Angels clubhouse in Niagara is still before the civil courts, almost four years since it was restrained, is a testament to how cumbersome the job of taking goods away from criminals can be. First with police meticulously building their cases, then through the lengthy court process.
Det. Insp. John Sullivan, head of the Provincial Asset Forfeiture Unit in Ottawa, said resolutions take a long time unless somebody pleads guilty and walks away from their assets.
"As time goes on, we tend not to get those cases of people just walking way," he said. "If you have that much money, you're willing to fight, right?"
The provincial unit uses the same legislation as the RCMP's Integrated Proceeds of Crime Unit, but deals with everything from vehicle seizures on the side of the road to restraining biker clubhouses.
Sullivan said the cases are intricate, requiring multiple search warrants and production orders on bank accounts. A forensic accountant works with the police to help find a person's true net worth. How is someone making $30,000 a year living in luxury home, for example, and driving a Ferrari to a vacation home?
They follow the money wherever it takes them.
"It's not as simple as getting a warrant and seizing drugs and things like that. They're all very complex cases," he said.
The ways people launder and hide money is getting more complex too.
Sullivan said when the unit first started in 1990 with one officer, criminals were using proceeds of crime to buy "toys" - big TVs, ATVs and motorcycles. Now, they're investing in stocks and finding money laundering havens.
While there will always be simple cases with the drug dealers who can't help but spend the loot, there are others who use organizations that exist solely to launder money - to move it, make it go through as many financial institutions as possible and take it offshore.
"The whole goal for them is to make it as hard as possible for us," Sullivan said.
Back in 2005, the unit's officers initiated Project Tandem with the OPP's biker enforcement unit, running parallel investigations into the Hells Angels Outlaw Motorcycle gang. They probed drug activities by Hells Angels and their associates in Niagara, Durham,York, Peel, Toronto, Halton and Hamilton. pics/vid/more-
While other cops raid imposing fortresses, like that of the Niagara Hells Angels, storming through fences in riot gear, they are meticulously running the numbers.
"Nothing hurts a criminal infrastructure more than removal of their criminal assets," said Det. St. Sgt. Robin Irwin of the OPP's Organized Crime Enforcement Bureau's Provincial Asset Forfeiture Unit.
"We attack the infrastructure of the criminal organization and bankrupt it. Bottom line is criminal bankruptcy."
Last year, the unit seized more than $22 million in assets and had more than $9.6 million forfeited by owners.
It's made up of 53 police officers from 21 different police agencies in Ontario.
The fact the Hells Angels clubhouse in Niagara is still before the civil courts, almost four years since it was restrained, is a testament to how cumbersome the job of taking goods away from criminals can be. First with police meticulously building their cases, then through the lengthy court process.
Det. Insp. John Sullivan, head of the Provincial Asset Forfeiture Unit in Ottawa, said resolutions take a long time unless somebody pleads guilty and walks away from their assets.
"As time goes on, we tend not to get those cases of people just walking way," he said. "If you have that much money, you're willing to fight, right?"
The provincial unit uses the same legislation as the RCMP's Integrated Proceeds of Crime Unit, but deals with everything from vehicle seizures on the side of the road to restraining biker clubhouses.
Sullivan said the cases are intricate, requiring multiple search warrants and production orders on bank accounts. A forensic accountant works with the police to help find a person's true net worth. How is someone making $30,000 a year living in luxury home, for example, and driving a Ferrari to a vacation home?
They follow the money wherever it takes them.
"It's not as simple as getting a warrant and seizing drugs and things like that. They're all very complex cases," he said.
The ways people launder and hide money is getting more complex too.
Sullivan said when the unit first started in 1990 with one officer, criminals were using proceeds of crime to buy "toys" - big TVs, ATVs and motorcycles. Now, they're investing in stocks and finding money laundering havens.
While there will always be simple cases with the drug dealers who can't help but spend the loot, there are others who use organizations that exist solely to launder money - to move it, make it go through as many financial institutions as possible and take it offshore.
"The whole goal for them is to make it as hard as possible for us," Sullivan said.
Back in 2005, the unit's officers initiated Project Tandem with the OPP's biker enforcement unit, running parallel investigations into the Hells Angels Outlaw Motorcycle gang. They probed drug activities by Hells Angels and their associates in Niagara, Durham,York, Peel, Toronto, Halton and Hamilton. pics/vid/more-