Dirty Tricks Gang

From Rap Dictionary

The Dirty Tricks Gang is believed to be one of the 1st street gangs to form in the Alexandra Park Co-op Housing in the late 60's. This gang was responsible for hundreds of bank robberies and hold ups across Ontario during the 70's and 80's. The Dirty Tricks Gang were given their name by police because of the underhanded tactics they would use to pull off heists and allude capture (they have been known to tap police lines and throw spikes or tacts on the road to disable pursuing police cruisers). The mastermind of this gang, Ricky Atkinson, is the second of five children of famed housing activist Sonny Atkinson, president of the Alexandra Park Tenants Association and has served 16 years in various prisons in Ontario. It is believed this gang set the foundation for the following generations in what would later be known as the Project Originals gang.

It should be dually noted that in the Metro Toronto Police Museum located at their headquarters, there is in fact an exhibit which displays some of the dirty tricks used by the gang: prosthetics, hair color, grease paint, scanner, binoculars, wig, balaclava, score book (diary), wooden boards studded with nails, sections of garden hose studded with nails. The "Dirty Tricks" gang was one of Toronto's most sophisticated criminal gangs. They selected banks and credit union branches that gave them an excellent chance of escaping. They also often stole a van for their getaway, and loaded it with the devices used to throw into the path of pursuing police cars. They also used state-of-the-art communications equipment and posted lookouts that could call off a planned robbery at the first sign of police presence.

The "Dirty Tricks" gang members were an elite crew of men, known as BOCOG's: Black Organized Crime Original Gangsters.