‘I was destroying lives’: Former B.C. high school drug dealer on the lure of gang life

This article is part one of a Global BC series focused on the B.C. gang conflict.

In the halls of high school, where peer pressure and the need for acceptance are high on the minds of B.C. teenagers, gangs are targeting their latest recruits.

Students are being approached, sometimes by their peers, to partake in dealing drugs — and even participate in B.C.’s ongoing gang conflict.

In an exclusive interview, Global BC spoke with a former Surrey high school drug dealer who recently left the drug trade. He gave his perspective on what’s happening inside Surrey schools, and discussed drugs, violence and gangs, after selling drugs for a number of years.

Global News is referring to this young man as Steve. His identity is being protected for privacy and safety reasons.

“I thought it was cool. I got into it, hurt people, (and) got arrested. I’ve gone to court for this stuff,” Steve told Global News.

“And like for what? Because you think it’s cool? (I) didn’t understand that I was hurting people and their parents. I (was) destroying lives by selling drugs.”

Steve said he started selling drugs with a group in his early high-school years after being manipulated by what he called older guys. He said he stopped selling around five months ago.

His path into selling drugs, he said, began with a vape or e-cigarette, with older students, often in Grades 11 or 12, offering them to younger kids.

“At first, they’ll give you a free one. And they’ll be like, ‘Here you go, it’s OK, we got you – we are your brother, we are this, we are family’,” Steve said.

“And then as soon as you get really addicted and you need one after another, they start making you pay for it. And if you don’t have the money to pay for it they’ll make you do stuff for them.”

The older guys, who are often drug dealers, will then give the now-nicotine-addicted youths tasks to carry out. Those tasks range from finding new customers, to actively recruiting more kids or even drug running.

“They’ll show you all these like money photos, all these guns and stuff and make it seem really cool. So you get manipulated by that and get brainwashed. ‘Oh, this is really cool, easy money, easy fame, everyone’s scared of you’,” Steve said.

The drug dealers, who are sometimes also out of high school or in their early 20s, will target two types of kids — the tough, cocky kid or the small and meek ones who are harshly bullied.

Once a connection is made and tasks start being carried out, Steve said the group will start to let the youths know exactly which gang they work for. And, importantly, which ones to be wary of.

He said this is happening in every major high school in Surrey.

“There are so, so many guys and they are all working for older guys. Let’s say one guy is working for his Brothers Keeper cousins, and (a different) guy is working for his BIBO cousins.

“They’ll have (a quarrel). So one will get some kids, the other gets some kids and they’ll (fight) with each other. It’s kind of like they’ll persuade these kids (to participate).”

Another extremely alarming notion: These Grade 11 and 12 dealers are targeting elementary school students, as well.

“It’s painful seeing all these young, young kids getting into it. Before, it started around Grade 10, then it started going lower and lower,” Steve said. “Now it’s Grade 4 or 5.”

Turf wars and street beefs are directly leading to brazen violence in the public and, even scarier, in schools.

“It’s crazy. It’s crazy how all this stuff has become normal now,” Steve said.

“There are knives at school, drugs, mace cans, CO2 airsoft guns, real guns … lots of stuff.”

Steve said the process of turning his life around started when he got into “serious” trouble with the law.

After an arrest, Steve said his mother forced him to partake in a youth anti-gang program. And that program quickly affected him — something he never expected.

He’s now a youth councillor in the program.

“It feels really good,” he said. “It feels like all the bad I did, that I have done … it feels like I can make up for that when I’m doing this.

“Seeing all these little kids laugh and, like, I’m putting a smile on their faces.”

Unfortunately, Steve’s story is not an uncommon one. According to B.C.’s leading anti-gang police force, the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit B.C., officers deal with dozens of cases like Steve’s every year. However, many times they end in tragedy.

“We’re talking as young as 12, 13, 14 years old. And I’ve even had teachers call me about a kid as young as 10 years old selling cocaine at an elementary school,” said Staff Sgt. Lindsay Houghton, with B.C.’s anti-gang task force.

“Oftentimes, young people don’t care about consequences. They think they’re invincible and so they’re willing to take risks in many cases.

“And they often they tell us they’re more susceptible to peer pressure. We see our young people … usually (between) the ages of about 16 and 22 … that is where the bulk of our street-level drug dealers are in that (age) range.”

Steve knows the lures to his old life are lurking just beneath the surface, and he still has friends in the business who try to convince him to return.

He said speaking out about his experience is an important step forward, along with the work he’s now doing with young people in his community.

“I know that I’m doing something right. But it’s not easy for (others) to recognize you are doing something right. You’ve got to fight for yourself, and you (have) to be strong.”

The next story in this series looks at the bloody battle of subgroups in B.C.’s gang war, and how organized crime has changed over the years.