Toronto Star: Police say raid took out gang’s leaders
Date: Jan 26, 2007 9:38 AM
PUBLICATION: The Toronto Star
DATE: 2007.01.26
EDITION: Met
SECTION: Gta
PAGE: C04
BYLINE: Betsy Powell
SOURCE: Toronto Star
WORD COUNT: 432

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Police say raid took out gang’s leaders

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Police say they have taken out the leadership of a long- standing
downtown gang that calls itself Project Originals after swooping down on
a tiny housing complex and arresting five young men who live in the
Atkinson Co-op west of Spadina Ave., between Dundas and Queen Sts.

In all, nine people were arrested after police executed search warrants
in the Vanauley Walk area Wednesday night.

Police laid 39 charges including cocaine trafficking, failing to comply
with a recognizance order and robbery. They also seized 3.5 ounces of
crack cocaine and 9 ounces of cocaine.

The accused appeared in court yesterday at Old City Hall.

Some of the accused are suspected of being involved in two shootouts,
before and after Christmas, around Yonge St. with rival Regent Park gang
members over drug turf.

Witnesses had reported seeing a man standing on the sidewalk of O’Keefe
Lane at Shuter St., steps from the Eaton Centre, firing several shots at
a Cadillac as it drove by with at least four occupants inside.

No injuries were reported. Two men were captured on video surveillance
running from the scene.

The second shooting, of a 15-year-old in the leg, happened in the
pre-dawn hours late last month near Sam the Record Man on Yonge St.,
about a block north of Dundas St..

The shooting was taped by a temporary security camera erected for the
busy Christmas shopping season.

After police in 14 Division launched a campaign in the Vanauley Walk
area in November “to attack the gang-related activities taking place in
the area,” investigators at 51 Division started also looking at the
“P.O. Boys” as suspects in the Yonge St. shootings.

The two separate probes dovetailed and resulted in search warrants being
executed at Atkinson Co-op. Charged are Yonathan Musse, 19, Josimar
Rosales, 20, Adeyemi Adeleke, 18, Ismael Ibrahim, 19 and George Gyekye,
18.

A 17-year-old who can’t be identified was charged with robbery. Three
others also face charges.

While police described five of the accused as gang members, they did not
charge any of them with belonging to a criminal organization.

This week in Montreal a judge is believed to have recognized, for the
first time, a street gang as a criminal organization as defined under
the Criminal Code. That offence of gangsterism carries stiff penalties.

Police use the offence sparingly because it’s very costly to prove and
requires a highly specialized investigation, often involving wiretaps.

The Crown must establish that the gang is a criminal organization – with
its own hierarchy – and that criminal offences are being committed for
the material benefit of the criminal enterprise, defined as three or
more people whose main activity is to commit crime for the group’s
benefit.

Toronto police began laying the charge against gang members almost three
years ago.

Several of the people charged have pleaded guilty to the offence.

A judge’s ruling, however, is considered more significant and other
courts can take “judicial notice” of it.

Last month, a judge in Scarborough ordered 17 reputed members of the
Galloway Boys to stand trial on criminal organization charges, among
others, following a lengthy preliminary hearing.

The Second Amendment IS Homeland Security !