The year 2024 is drawing to a close and for my last column of the year, I cannot leave you without taking stock of the events that have taken place in the criminal ecosystem. Not all of them, just the loudest ones.
The year began with this small revolt by a gang from Quebec, the Blood Family Mafia (BFM), which refused to continue paying a royalty to the Hells Angels. A conflict which has been going on since the summer of 2023 and which has become chronic to the point where the guys have taken their war strategies up a notch, namely torturing the enemy and filming them.
Millennials and Zoomers (Gen Z) love to film themselves and create buzz on the networks. We will have to take this into account in interventions.
Torture was something of a novelty. We had not yet seen a gang in Quebec torturing its enemies. This is a technique mostly used by criminal groups in South America.
Still, this strategy had the desired effect: the media only talked about them.
You should know that in the criminal ecosystem, one of the precious assets that is difficult to acquire, unless you have been in existence for years, is symbolism, in other words, reputation. It allows you to recruit new members, increase your network of allies (and enemies), attract girls and increase economic capital.
As you know, a reputation is built over years. In the criminal world, that of “a big, fearless villain who tortures those close to the Hells Angels” is worth its weight in gold. And, this gang from Quebec obtained it in a few months.
For a gang, this is unheard of.
Gangs 3.0, the new generations
It is always difficult for a gang to build a national reputation, like the Hells or the Italian Mafia, because their existence as a group is ephemeral and their network of alliances is usually small.
These are fluid groups, hence this impression of disorganization, which is also false. They are not disorganized, they organize themselves differently.
Imagine autonomous cells which, depending on interests and conflicts, coordinate with each other or kill each other.
Some will cluster together to form, what I call, “families”. In Quebec, we often hear about Bloods and Crips. This type of “families” exists elsewhere in Canada and the United States. In fact, this model is an American import.
In recent years, we have even seen alliances being forged between gangs from Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. They no longer network only among Quebecers.
Assassination contracts are even carried out in Quebec by members of Ontario gangs.
These new generations of gangs are doing things differently and in their own way, in the age of social networks and, for your information, several of the members are pure French Canadians.
What does 2025 have in store for us?
If the trend continues…
We risk seeing this revolt continue and take a new turn.
It is already being felt on the ground.
La contamination…
Rumor has it that another “family” is also fed up with paying royalties.
