The increase in gang violence on the streets of Vancouver and other Canadian cities has direct ties to the grisly drug-cartel wars that have terrorized Mexico and some American border towns, say Canadian and U.S. police.
Violence has reached a fever pitch in parts of Mexico where the government of President Felipe Calderon has sent in 45,000 soldiers and 5,000 federal police to try to curb cartel activity. More than 7,000 have died in the last two years, with 1,000 deaths this January alone.
The United States has felt the impact, with the cartels sending assassins across the border and more and more cells springing up across the country to distribute cocaine from the south.
Those distribution lines ultimately lead to Canada, making this country far from immune to what's going on in Mexico, says RCMP Superintendent Pat Fogarty with the combined forces special enforcement unit.
Recent gang-related violence in British Columbia and elsewhere is "directly related to this Mexican war," he said in an interview Tuesday.
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