There are certain sectors/boats/skippers/social networks within the commercial fleet that are not just problematic - but regularly participate in organized crime. Anyone involved in these sectors totally understands this reality & occasionally sees or experiences it firsthand - as does DFO C&P. Sometimes it gets as far as the courts if C&P are lucky enough to catch the occasional infraction and sometimes the news picks up on it and we get some insights into that organization of fish crime.
In particular is the crab fleet - both out of Vancouver (Area C) and Prince Rupert (Area A) - and elsewhere where there are easy offloading opportunities. Soft shell crab is often kept and sold illegally under the table - in areas away from the normal buyers - often in Alberta and elsewhere. Drug money is re-invested into boat repairs and cleaned that way. Hard for a normal hardworking legal crab fishermen to compete - esp now with trap limits set by area.
Nobody bats an eye when anyone states that a certain section of the Italian community is involved in the mafia organized crime in big cities in the states - but we haven't yet come to the social acceptance of admitting that a similar style of culturally hidden organized crime exists in our outports on the West Coast.
And the Vietnamese organized crime network is not the only network or culture involved in fish crime on the West Coast neither. I am speaking with some experience in these issues.
