Pubdate: Mon, 14 May 2001 Source: The North Thompson Star/Journal (CN BC) Copyright: 2001 The North Thompson Star/Journal Contact: http://www.starjournal.net/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1231 Author: Ann Piper Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/raids.htm (Drug Raids) DRUG BUST LEAVES NEIGHBOURS UNSETTLED Residents of the Vista Point Road area are still shaking their heads over events surrounding an April 29 drug bust that sent camouflage-clad, heavily armed police officers into their neighbourhood. Bob Brown is a near neighbour to the property where police seized 1,812 marijuana plants in various stages of growth and associated hydroponic growing apparatus and paraphernalia. "They (the RCMP) came hovering in here in their chopper and had my horses terrorized, trying to land in their pasture 50 yards from the house," says Brown. He says older neighbours, uncertain those responsible for the marijuana grow operation were still at large, "were terrorized they were going to be murdered in their sleep because they might think we were the ones who turned them in. "We're still hanging here. We haven't been told anything. We don't have a clue." On the day of that event, he adds, one unsuspecting senior was severely startled when confronted "by three guys in camouflage with machine guns." Brown says the police exercise involved "at least half a dozen cars" and the police helicopter. Neighbours know the trailer at the grow scene was removed during the night following the police action, but little more. Barriere RCMP say an active investigation continues, and while nobody has been arrested charges are pending. "There is no threat to the neighbours whatsoever," a detachment member said May 9. Further, police say they understand that "everyone up there knew what was going on and never said a word," and that the operation had been on-going in some form since at least 1995. That matches what Brown and others report. "For six years everybody up here had their suspicions, and those with teens were quite concerned." Brown says a man claiming to be the owner explained the property had been purchased to provide a summer getaway for his parents who found the U.S. Southwest too hot in the summer. "As far as we know, the owner never lived there. The owner pulled a trailer up there and left it." The owner did construct a large shed on the property, and for five years a single tenant occupied the property. That person had no real contact with the neighbours, nor did the male who replaced him 18 months or two years ago. "We knew it probably wasn't on the up-and-up," says Brown, "but we kept our silence for fear of retaliation." - --- MAP posted-by: Josh Sutcliffe