What I was told by the police services all across the province was that in fact the criminal groups doing this were organized. That was not necessarily the same thing as with the Hells Angels, for example. It wasn't necessarily at that level, but it was organized criminal activity that had a chain to it and was involved in communications, exports, paying off the province and helping move people around.
It was organized, and a lot of the same strategies actually apply in relation to that. For example, in dealing with the more traditional organized crime as well as with street gangs, targeted enforcement works. When you target the bad guys who are the leaders of the group and you get them off the streets, it has an impact.
I saw that as a prosecutor. I remember being blown away by the fact that a bunch of people were doing break and enters for drugs. It was in all of the suburban areas around Edmonton. When we caught these guys—and it was in the good old days when you didn't get pretrial custody credits—they were denied bail. It was known as dead time, so guess what? They pleaded guilty.
When those people were taken off the streets, the break-and-enter crimes in all the suburban areas went down. A reality of our justice system is that a small number of offenders are responsible for a disproportionately large volume of crime. Unfortunately, that reality also applies in rural crime.