-
- Thousands of Tamil guerrillas with "extensive"
paramilitary training are living in the Toronto area, according to a detailed
police report. The report alleges also that large sums of money are being
funnelled to the Tamil Tigers terrorist group in Sri Lanka through a Canadian
non-profit organization.
-
- The report by the Toronto police Tamil Task Force estimates
that, based on interviews with past and present guerrillas, Canada's largest
city is home to as many as 8,000 members of "Tamil terrorist factions,"
most notably the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), or Tamil Tigers.
-
- "These persons are known to have had extensive paramilitary
training in the use of automatic weapons, hand-to-hand combat, Russian
RPGs (anti-tank weapons), rocket launchers and other offensive weapons
and substances ... Many of these have been used in the Greater Toronto
Area to carry out their projects," the report says.
-
- A makeshift napalm bomb, armour-piercing bullets, AK-47
assault rifles and submachine guns have been either used by or seized from
suspected Tamil gang members in and around Toronto with links to the Tigers,
the report adds, drawing links between the VVT gang, the Tamil Tigers and
the World Tamil Movement, a key member of the Federation of Associations
of Canadian Tamils.
-
- If accurate, the police report points to a massive failure
in the immigration screening system, which is supposed to protect Canadians
from terrorists and war criminals seeking refuge here.
-
- It may also explain how the Tamil Tigers have managed
to establish such a lucrative fundraising network in Canada.
-
- Dave Harris, a security consultant and former chief of
strategic planning at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, said
the report's estimate of the number of Tamil guerrillas who have resettled
in Toronto was probably accurate. "It think that's plausible,"
he said. The police report is two years old, but the flow of Tamils to
Canada has increased in that time, suggesting that the number of paramilitaries
in Toronto may have risen too.
-
- The island of Sri Lanka is Canada's leading source of
refugees; more than 150,000 have migrated to Canada in the past two decades
and some continue to support the Tamil Tigers.
-
- Police and intelligence agencies say that money raised
in Canada's Tamil community through donations, organized crime and front
organizations is being funnelled to the Tamil Tigers to finance war.
-
- The Tigers have mounted a series of terrorist attacks
since 1983 -- including dozens of suicide bombings that have killed scores
of politicians and civilians -- in an effort to gain independence from
Sri Lanka.
-
- Last week, the LTTE's suicide squad killed a cabinet
minister and 22 bystanders, drawing condemnation from the United Nations,
Western powers including Canada, and Amnesty International.
-
- Supporters of the Tamil independence campaign plan a
rally today at Queen's Park in Toronto.
-
- Aside from Tamil Tigers, the Toronto area is harbouring
members of other militant Sri Lankan Tamil groups, including the Peoples
Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam and the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization,
says the police report, entitled Pilot Project Report, Tamil Organized
Crime.
-
- It reports that in the late 1990s police began noticing
an increase in violent crime "in which the common denominator was
that the suspects and victims were Tamils." The crimes included murders,
drive-by shootings, weapons smuggling, arson, robberies, home invasions,
migrant smuggling and money-laundering, as well as bank, casino and credit
card fraud.
-
- "Losses in the millions have been incurred by the
major banks," says the report.
-
- Stolen and lost Canadian passports and immigration papers
"are being used to transport illegal immigrants into Canada and to
forge other documents. This organized crime is being performed on a very
large scale and is overseen by the Tamil criminal elements within Canada
and Sri Lanka," it says.
-
- "The present cost for the transportation of a single
Sri Lankan male is $26,000 and the price paid for a valid Canadian passport
is $7,000. This money directly and indirectly funds the LTTE through other
groups such as the World Tamil Movement and allows criminals to move back
and forth.
-
- "As a result, a large number of Tamils in Canada
are submitting lost and stolen identification occurrences. Two major sources
of forged/stolen passports have been identified in Peel and Etobicoke.
Sources/agents have agreed to infiltrate these groups."
-
- The World Tamil Movement is one of eight "important
constituent members" of the Federeation of Associations of Canadian
Tamils, according to a program handed out at a May 6 FACT dinner attended
by Paul Martin, the Finance Minister, Maria Minna, the Minister of International
Cooperation and several other backbench politicians.
-
- Canada is trying to deport the former co-ordinator of
the WTM and FACT, alleging he was sent to Toronto by the Tigers to raise
money to finance the insurgency in Sri Lanka. Both groups have been identified
as "front organizations" for the LTTE in Patterns of Global Terrorism
1999, a report by the U.S. State Department, and Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam's International Organization and Operations -- A Preliminary Analysis,
written by Professor Peter Chalk and published by the Canadian Security
Intelligence Service.
-
- The VVT gang (named after Valvettithurai, the birthplace
of the Tamil Tigers) serves as the "enforcer" for the Tamil Tigers
in Canada, says the report. Those who have criticized the LTTE have been
assaulted and had their businesses ruined by VVT members, the report says.
-
- The gang is composed of past and present LTTE members,
such as Niranjan Claude Fabian, who the report identifies as a former assassin
for the rebel group. Fabian was convicted of passport forgery and ordered
deported but the matter is on hold while he appeals his case. He ranks
either second or third in the gang, it says.
-
- Another VVT leader, Sriranjan Rasa, is awaiting deportation
after being convicted of conspiracy to commit assault causing bodily harm,
conspiracy to use forged credit cards and possession of a restricted weapon.
"Several photos of the gang leader, Sri Ranjan Rasa, were seized during
a search and show him wearing camouflage gear, carrying weapons and standing
in front of the LTTE flag," the report says.
-
- The report says the VVT has used a homemade napalm bomb
and smuggled three AK-47 assault rifles into Toronto. An AK-47 ammunition
clip loaded with 27 armor piercing bullets was seized by police. Toronto
police also seized an Uzi submachine gun from a suspected gang member.
Police found a cache of weapons, including a 9mm submachine gun, in a Scarborough,
Ont., snowbank in 1998,
-
- The organized crime is raising vast amounts of money.
In one case, a man and woman opened a bank account at the Bank of Nova
Scotia in 1997. During the following weeks, counterfeit U.S. cheques were
deposited into the account. Cheques were written to a number of people
and companies using the money.
-
- The loss to the bank was $147,000. The woman fled back
to Sri Lanka, but the man remained in Toronto and has been identified as
being involved in the smuggling of migrants to Canada from Sri Lanka, the
report says.
-
- Some of the money drawn on the account was diverted to
a downtown Toronto jewellry company. Police discovered the company was
making cash deposits in excess of $100,000 a day. The money was being wired
to the U.S.
-
- "It is believed that the company is laundering funds
for a Tamil alien smuggling ring operating in both Canada and the United
States," the report says. "Investigation is presently ongoing
with regards to the frauds, alien smuggling and money laundering.
-
- "Estimated moneys laundered to date are in excess
of $30 million dollars Canadian."
-
- Despite the volume of crime being committed by the gangs,
police are having difficulty making arrests because witnesses are afraid
to testify. One gang circulated a Tamil-language flyer offering a reward
to anyone who helped them find Crown witnesses.
-
- Even when gang members are convicted, they are not being
deported. The Federal Court of Canada has ruled that Tamil militants should
be deported even if they might be tortured upon their return, but the matter
is now before the Supreme Court of Canada, which will have the final say.
-
- The February 1998 report was filed as evidence against
Rasa, who admitted he was a VVT gang member but denied the group was part
of the Tamil Tigers network. The document emerged last month when the Federal
Court ruled that Rasa should be deported as a danger to the public.
-
- While the report was written more than two years ago,
Supt. Rocky Cleveland, who oversees the Tamil task force in Toronto, said
Tamil gang activity continues to be a problem. "It is not a statement
about the Tamil community, it is a statement about people taking part in
criminal conduct for the purposes of financial gain," he said.
-
- At a news conference this week, representatives of several
Tamil-Canadian interest groups including FACT denied they were fundraising
to support the Tamil Tigers and threatened to sue the National Post, calling
its reporting "a calculated attack on Tamil-Canadians."
-
-
- MainPage
http://www.rense.com
-
-
-
- This
Site Served by TheHostPros
|