Bermuda's gangs are becoming structured, organised and better at the drugs business they're in, politician and lawyer Mark Pettingill warned yesterday.

Addressing the budget debate in the House of Assembly, he said he was glad to see funding increases for the Police serious crime and narcotics departments.

Serious crime detectives have a $571,000 (37 percent) funding increase this year, and the narcotics team has a 290,000 (15 percent) increase.

Mr. Pettingill, a Bermuda Democratic Alliance MP and defence lawyer, said: "The drugs drive the gang business. You know the gangs aren't just out there hanging around the wall and doing nothing. These gangs have become organised because they are in business and they're getting better at it.

"I did a case not so long ago where I saw for the first time three things you don't want to see that's loyalty, leadership and structure in a gang organisation. It really struck me, 'wow' this is a very big problem, as was forecast years ago.

"The young men that we would like to be leaders in our community and doing something productive decide to choose a different path. Some of these young men are very bright, they're leaders and they are not leading in the way we would like them to lead.

"They develop loyalty and structure in an organisation which is a gang and they're in it for business, and the business is drugs. And like with any business, you have to protect your business and you have to protect your area. This becomes the imposition of violence in our community. That's how it started. That's how it's going on. So what we need to do is kill the business."

For this reason, Mr. Pettingill said ideas such as decriminalising marijuana need to be approached very carefully.

"The fact of the matter is that the people out there purchasing drugs are driving the drug business and are driving the violence. And they probably don't necessarily think that. They're out there complaining about being victims of crime, they've got their house broken into or they've been mugged or robbed or whatever. But they're out there buying some cocaine or some weed or whatever and not realising that they're supporting the business which drives the violence," he said.

"So in order to deal with that, areas such as narcotics need to be funded. In order to fight a war, you've got to have the funding to fight it."

Mr. Pettingill declined to comment afterwards on which criminal case and gang he was referring to, but said it involved violence.