ABSTRACT
The ‘gang war’ between ‘Los Diablos’ and ‘Gum Wah’ continued throughout 1987 and 1988, with running street fights, battles in shopping malls, and the occasional mobile gun battle. One of the most obvious characteristics of street gangs such as ‘Los Diablos’ is their transient quality and relative instability, especially when compared with criminal business organisations. By the end of June 1990, the demographic profile of ‘Los Diablos’ changed again, from a predominantly Hispanic group, to a predominantly Indo-Canadian group. It was estimated that 80% of the gang's members were of Fijian East Indian origin and the gang was led by a high profile Fijian individual. As students of the field continually discover, there is very little research addressing the topic of gangs from a Canadian perspective, despite emerging evidence that street gangs, criminal business organisations, and other similar groupings have been active in Canadian cities since well before the Second World War.
