Scotian - History

History

North Preston's Finest (NPF), also called the Scotians and the North Preston gang, is a gang of pimps based in North Preston, which is in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada. The town of North Preston has a population of 3,700, and is located just northeast of Metropolitan Halifax. Benjamin Perrin, a University of British Columbia faculty member who is involved with human trafficking research and activism, wrote extensively about NPF in his 2010 book Invisible Chains, calling North Preston "a place of Shakespearean irony" because of the town's conversion from a sanctuary for Black Loyalists (former American slaves) in the 1780s into the hub of a major gang that deals in modern-day slavery and drug and arms trafficking. There are approximately ten gangs in the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM), of which NPF is the most prominent. NPF is part of hip hop subculture, and most of the gang members are Black Canadians from North Preston. In 1996, Phonse Jessome, an investigative journalist, wrote the book Somebody's Daughter about a gang he called the "Toronto/Halifax pimping ring", a gang that Perrin's Invisible Chains identifies with NPF. Despite Jessome's investigation into this gang in the early 1990s, NPF's power has consistently increased since then.

In 2007, the gang was believed to be composed of approximately 50 men. An estimate in 2009 by Michael Chettleburgh, an expert on street gangs who works as a consultant on issues of criminal justice, put NPF's membership between 60 and 80. He also asserts that the age of NPF members mostly ranges between 18 and 28. NPF members have criminal tattoos to signal their membership in the gang, with the neck being the standard location for these tattoos. According to Chettleburgh, NPF first formed in the mid-to-late 1980s. In 1993, Morris Glasgow was sentenced to jail for seven years once he was identified as the crime boss of a nation-wide pimping ring, possibly NPF. Peel Regional Police (PRP) vice detective Randy Cowan stated in 2007 that NPF is a family-based gang, with members of the 2000s being the relatives of 1990s members. A warning has been issued to police officers to be extremely careful when encountering NPF members because of the gang's "armed and dangerous" status. Both the Nova Scotia Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Halifax Regional Police monitor the gang. Like Independent Soldiers, Indian Posse, United Nations, Bo-Gars, Native Syndicate, and Crazy Dragons, NPF has an interprovincial presence. Chettleburgh, the author of Young Thugs: Inside the Dangerous World of Canadian Street Gangs, stated in 2009 that NPF's activities west of Nova Scotia only began approximately ten years earlier, but that the gang's presence had subsequently become well-established in the area of Ontario stretching between Niagara Falls and the Regional Municipality of Peel. The commencement of NPF's activities in southwestern Ontario coincided with their expansion into Quebec. In 2008, Chettleburgh stated that there were approximately 12 confirmed NPF members in Peel. According to Chettleburgh, outlaw motorcycle gangs in the Regional Municipality of Niagara frequently collaborate with NPF. NPF used to have a presence in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) as well, although Chettleburgh has stated that NPF is no longer very active there. In 2010, PRP Constable Mike Viozzi claimed that NPF had an even stronger presence in Montreal than in Ontario. In Invisible Chains, Perrin argues that NPF has also become active in Western Canada.