SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The gang allegedly responsible for supplying crack-cocaine to Yellowknife started as a group of violent, disruptive high school kids in rural B.C., according to an RCMP gang expert from the area.

Gage McPake, 20, of Surrey, BC: charged with three counts of drug trafficking. - Image courtesy of Facebook

Insp. Richard Konarski worked in lower-mainland B.C. when the RCMP began to crack down on the '856' gang - so named for the phone prefix of the area they're from. He also co-authored a paper on the gang's membership as a PhD candidate at Simon Fraser University.

Yellowknife RCMP said the 856 gang are connected to the 11 people they arrested in a series of raids on drug dens in the city on Dec. 6. "Operation Goblin," they say, was designed to disrupt the group.

So far none of the 11 arrested have been convicted on their charges, nor has their association with the 856 gang been proven in court.

Gary Wool, a defence attorney with Legal Aid who represented one of the accused during a court appearance on Monday, said he wouldn't be available to make comments as the matter is before the courts.

RCMP Staff Sgt. Craig Peterson, the officer in charge of the investigation, said the gang has a "propensity for violence." Chief Supt. Wade Blake, commanding officer of the RCMP in the Northwest Territories, said the gang was responsible for supplying crack-cocaine to many Yellowknifers, including "well-dressed professionals driving high-end vehicles." Both officers vowed to dismantle the group in Yellowknife.

Konarski, a 36-year RCMP veteran, first came across the 856 gang while he was working in Langley, B.C.

"These kids, aged 16 to 19, were just being idiots," he said.

"They were causing disruption, vandalism, violence, those kind of things."

The group got its start in Aldergrove, B.C. around 2003, Konarski said. Back then, a lot of teens would throw the 856 name around, even if they weren't really in the gang, "because it was cool," Konarski said.

But the gang of disruptive youth eventually spiralled out of control. Some of its members were drug dealing, intimidating witnesses, extorting and robbing people.

"I don't believe we had as clear a handle on what we were dealing with," Konarski said.

In September 2007, the gang was connected to a high-profile assassination attempt, which involved a car chase and a shootout in Langley, according to local news sources. Konarski attributed two other attempted murders to them as well.

RCMP in Langley decided to go after the heart of the gang that year.

"Our job was simply to obliterate these guys. It wasn't anything sophisticated," Konarski said.

RCMP ended up arresting six people who they believed to be core of the gang in 2007. But Konarski's paper on the gang, published in 2011, notes there were at least 60 other people potentially involved with the gang and a further seven who could also be identified as core members.

"A lot of their connectedness happened through high school association," he said. "That can be extremely powerful when it comes to these groups."

Although the RCMP disrupted the gang in 2007 with the arrests, Konarski says he's not surprised they're still active - and in a place like Yellowknife.

"It's like watching the cancer metastasize," he said.

"The name, it hasn't disappeared. It still exists."

Konarski said the 856 gang was probably drawn to Yellowknife because it's "under-served" by drug dealers, meaning they can sell their product for higher prices.

Unfortunately for Yellowknife, Konarski said the 856 gang could bring violence to the city through conflict with other crime groups.

"It can turn to violence for the most bizarre things," Konarski said.

Add drugs and firearms into the scenario, and Konarski says things can "turn into a mess pretty fast."

"It's like a cold war. You don't want to be left behind. Weakness can be seen as something to be exploited."

Many gang members from his area eat Oxycontin "like candy" and abuse steroids, Konarski said, adding to the problem.

Although the gangs have been a problem in rural B.C. - and now in Yellowknife - Konarski said the root of the issue lies with drug users in those communities.

"The question we need to ask is why are so many people waking up in the morning and they feel the only way they can make it through the day ... is to get some substance in their body."

Konarski said police raids disrupting distribution and arresting gang members only deal with the symptom of a larger drug problem in places like Yellowknife.

"If you can answer that question then the guy with the trunk full of drugs is going to go back to his load-house and saying 'nobody called.'"

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