The Redd Alert Prison Gang

Who is the Redd Alert Prison Gang?

The Redd Alert is a Canadian gang made up of aboriginal youth who have been displaced, suffered fractured families, spent time in foster homes and juvenile detention, and whose extended families endured a legacy of generational disenfranchisement. These circumstances led to high rates of substance abuse, poverty, and joblessness. These factors make them very vulnerable to the lure of gang membership.

Redd Alert is a prison and street gang started by Cree, Anishinaabe, and Metis who sought to avoid becoming part of the Warriors prison gang. They came together around 1999 but were not recognized as a force on the street until 2005.

Aboriginal gangs are credited with sowing violence in the country’s urban centers of western provinces, including making the city of Winnipeg the murder capital of the country for a dozen years. Some of these gangs started inside prisons while others are straight street gangs.
 
In 2006 the Royal Canadian Mounted Police confiscated automatic weapons collected from Redd Alert during a raid. At the time they characterized the group as a loose affiliation and not an organized, structured unit. It wouldn’t be long until Redd Alert was on the radar of every law enforcement officer in the country. 

What Are Redd Alert Gang Colors and Initiation Rites? 

The Gang Redd Alert uses the initials “RA” for tattoos, and the gang’s color is red. Members have been known to wear red bandanas. 

Redd Alert’s oath is “Blood in, blood out,” which means members have to commit a bloody assault or murder to join the gang and can only leave the gang by dying. Redd Alert’s rivals are the Manitoba Warriors, Alberta Warriors, and Indian Posse, along with the United Nations, Crazy Dragons, and Native Syndicate.

How Does Redd Alert Make Money? 

Street and prison gangs generally make money through the sale of illegal drugs. Members may work together to buy some drugs, then shuttle the product from a supplier to those who sell it on the street and provide protection. They may also be involved in smuggling drugs to prisoners. 

Redd Alert has been associated with Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang, for whom they move or sell drugs. The gang is also associated with prostitution for profit.
 
Similarly, Redd Alert has an affiliation with White Boy Posse, a known racist gang. The motivation for the alliance is likely just economic – Redd Alert has a network for drug sales that White Boy Posse needs to use to maximize profits.
 

A Winnipeg law enforcement officer said there are 35 similar gangs in the area. In order to stand out and get the “respect” they crave, Redd Alert members have been willing to commit bloody crimes and earn significant profits from drug trafficking.

What are Some Recent Redd Alert Crimes?

• Redd Alert is responsible for a string of murders in 2018 around the Paul First Nation reserve in Edmonton. A 31-year-old mother, Ellie May House, was shot to death. Two Redd Alert associates were arrested for the crime. Not long before, a Vancouver Redd Alert leader’s wife was shot to death in retaliation for the shooting of another member of the same gang.
• Redd Alert was also responsible for crippling Crewboss; a feared Redd Alert leader. An online article described him as paralyzed and shrinking away without sufficient medical help. The man had been a criminal who got involved with Redd Alert while in prison but got into a dispute with another member of his gang. For disrespecting that man, he was attacked in his cell and brutally beaten by fellow Redd Alerts. The incident left him severely injured, paralyzed, and unable to care for himself. Two years after the event he was languishing in a hospital, allegedly without the benefit of physical therapy to improve.
• Two Redd Alert members attacked a rival gangster and murdered his cousin in cold blood in 2011. The Redd Alert members, Travis Johnny, Anthony Scotchman, and Chris David, descended on Game Tight Soldiers (GTS) member Shaa Tremblay and his cousin, Archie Lapretre, at a basketball court in Kamloops. Lapretre was stabbed eight times, including in the neck, the mortal wound. He was a college graduate and not affiliated with any gang. Scotchman’s girlfriend and mother of his child was Tremblay’s sister. When a friend texted Johnny afterward that Lapretre wasn’t a GTS member, he merely responded “LMAO.”
• Two Red Alert female members choked a woman to death in 2007 after being hired by a man to kill his girlfriend. An undercover police officer involved in a sting was freely told about the murder-for-hire situation by Shawn Wruck, who wasn’t charged with the crime until 2013.