Oceanside RCMP Staff Sergeant Brian Hunter said he’s not worried about Nanaimo’s gang activity spreading to Parksville or Qualicum Beach.
Police made arrests in Nanaimo on Friday afternoon, of members of the Redd Alert gang, after pulling over a vehicle they believed was being used for drug sales.
They arrested one person at the scene and followed that up with a raid on an apartment, where a man and a woman were placed under arrest.
Nanaimo RCMP spokesperson Gary O’Brien reported police received a tip about people associated with the Edmonton-based aboriginal youth gang operating in the city.
The gang, which has branches in Kamloops, Vancouver, Chase and Salmon Arm, deals mainly in drugs, prostitution, weapons trafficking and theft, O’Brien said.
Kamloops resident Kevin Eric John, 32, Nanaimo resident Christopher Ryan David, 22, and Terri Lynn Aleck, 21, also of Nanaimo, were charged with possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.
The arrests, Hunter said, do not mean the gang is likely to show up in Oceanside anytime soon.
“I don’t see an immediate concern at all,” he said. “That being said, whether it is across British Columbia or across the country ... criminals travel all over the place, for holidays, shopping or business. We are aware of that and as police we are in constant communication with our neighbouring detachments and subjects of concern we relate to each other and if it is a situation where we need to monitor the person, we would — but we have nothing in our detachment area.”
Hunter said while he has not seen evidence of Redd Alert gang activity in this area, that doesn’t mean the area is entirely untouched by illegal gang activity.
“I don’t think there is any area in Canada that is immune to this,” he said.