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Fast cars, cash and girls are the lure The lure of cash, girls and fast cars seduces teens into drug-selling criminal gangs in areas such as Cabramatta, an Asian-crime expert said yesterday. Young members were also "recruited" by the promise of protection on the streets, Dr Richard Basham said. "It gives them other people to hang out with, it is a peer group with money, girls and cars. "and rather than being afraid of people standing over them, they can start swaggering and turning the fear they feel on other people,"he said. Dr Basham said gangs working Cabramatta tended to be young teenagers, "who don't become serious members until they reach the age of majority". The teenagers were typically used for street-level drug dealing and extortion. The next rank carried out abductions before graduating to kidnap-for-ransom, drug importation and prostitution and gambling rackets, he said. His remarks follow Police Commissioner Peter Ryan's Tuesday claim the gangs offered a "family atmosphere". But Fairfield councillor Thang Ngo said the lure of easy cash - in a suburb struggling with high unemployment - was the main "carrot" for teenagers. "The unemployment rate is double the average in Cabramatta," he said. "People can make tens of thousands of dollars a week dealing drugs. "That has nothing to do with ethnicity or a desire to join some sort of supportive group. "It comes down to plain economics. It is the fact you can make a lot of money." |