Two projects took over two years to complete and concluded with the arrest of 32 suspects who were involved in heroin importation, credit card counterfeiting, illegal gambling, loansharking, obstructing justice, extortion, car thefts, smuggling, and a drive by shooting. The accused lived in Victoria, Vancouver, Hong Kong, San Juan and Las Vegas. The investigations had links in Canada, the United States, Puerto Rico, Hong Kong and Thailand. These top echelon criminals recruited and employed a street gang with over 200 members in the lower mainland. AOC in Alberta continues to be strongly influenced by the mobility of Vancouver and Toronto based Asian criminals who are involved in commodity smuggling, the distribution of counterfeit currency and the use of forged credit cards.
Local groups maintain their involvement in gaming related and property crimes.
Although cocaine remains the predominant illicit drug and primary source of income for Asian criminals, the presence of heroin is steadily increasing. The Alberta heroin trade is controlled by AOC and supplied from Southeast Asia, through sources in Vancouver. Chinese and Vietnamese drug syndicates from Calgary and Edmonton have established a permanent presence in the Northwest Territories. In 1998, the RCMP was successful in investigating and prosecuting several major figures in Yellowknife. During the summer of 1998, there was a rash of forged credit card frauds in Edmonton.