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."
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MAP posted-by: Josh Sutcliffe