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Bathurst NB: Michael Chettleburgh is an expert on Canadian youth gangs. In an address to the Atlantic Canada Street Gang Workshop that was held in Bathurst, N.B, he stated street gangs are on the rise in the Maritimes while the problem is still small it does exist.

"I think that there is an increasing realization that there are gang members." Chettleburgh said. "Whether it's a big town or a small town, every town has kids that are acting in antisocial ways that are getting involved with criminal activities."

In Bathurst, a group of teens were arrested two years ago following a fight.

"They were 14, 15, 16 years old and they were wearing different colours and they were identifying themselves as Bloods or Crips or East Siders or whatever," Police Const. Josh Ouellette.

According to Chettleburgh, television and movie influences play a much larger role as a driver for youth to join gangs.

The vice-principal at Bathurst High School, Don McKay attended the conference to get a better understanding of how to prevent gangs from becoming a problem in smaller communities.

"We don't want to see these things come into our smaller cities and maybe we can try to develop some strategies before they get here."