http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=d49d435e-76cf-439d-91be-780802edc962&k=57802
Number of organized crime groups up
Meagan Fitzpatrick, CanWest News Service
Published: Friday, August 17, 2007
Canadian police are tackling more organized crime this year than last, statistics released Friday reveal.
In its annual report on the state of organized crime, the RCMP said the number of gangs operating in 2007 jumped to 950 from 800 in 2006.
“This is significant and reinforces our commitment to work together to detect, reduce, and prevent organized crime in Canada,” William Elliott, the newly named RCMP commissioner, said at a news conference in Calgary. “The good news is that we’re better at identifying these groups than ever before.”
The higher number of gangs counted this year could be a result of more accurate reporting of their existence and better intelligence about their activities, the report explained. Elliott said even further intelligence would reveal whether organized crime is really more rampant than before.
But he stressed that, while this year’s gang numbers are up, progress is being made in fighting organized crime.”
Note: The following post is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1882982/posts
Five Men Indicted In Connection With Identity Theft Ring
NY1 ^ | August 16, 2007 | Staff
Posted on 08/18/2007 4:26:56 AM PDT by csvset
The Manhattan district attorney indicted five men Thursday for allegedly being part of an identity theft ring that stole more than a million dollars from wealthy citizens.
Prosecutors say the ring leader was Igor Klopov, 24, from Russia.
Klopov’s accused of targeting people’s home equity line of credit accounts. He was arrested in New York in May when he came to pick up $7 million in gold from an undercover investigator.
He allegedly picked his victims from the Forbes 400 list and used his home computer to get property records and mortgage information off the Internet.
“There is a great deal of sensitive information readily accessible by cyber criminals on the Internet and individuals and financial institutions need to be extremely careful to know who they are dealing with,” said Manhattan Chief Assistant District Attorney Jim Kindler.
Four other members of the ring were also arrested Thursday in Michigan, Florida, Texas and Kentucky. Prosecutors say they were plotting to steal another $10 million and could spend up to 25 years in prison if convicted.