Montreal's street gangs have grown from groups of teenagers banding together in the 1980s for protection to, at one point, being the Montreal police department’s top crime-fighting priority.

They work with other criminal gangs to traffic drugs, weapons and sex.

As he was being extradited to the U.S. on racketeering charges in 2006, Montreal Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto warned the police street gangs were going to become a force to be reckoned with. A prediction that appears to have come true.

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