Pubdate: Sat, 11 Jan 2003 Source: Richmond Review, The (CN BC) Copyright: 2003 Richmond Public Library Contact: http://www.richmondreview.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/704 Author: Martin van den Hemel RICHMOND STARS IN GROW-OP DOCUMENTARY The risks and dangers of owning a rental property in Richmond will be shown to a Hong Kong television audience in a documentary about marijuana growing operations currently being filmed here. Chris Lincoln, senior producer and reporter for Television Broadcasts Limited, Hong Kong's biggest television station, was filming in Richmond and Vancouver this week in hopes of illustrating the problem to the overseas audience. Lincoln is a Vancouver native who has been living and working in Hong Kong for the past nine years. The documentary will be shown in English, and possibly also in Cantonese. "The idea was to comment about the risks offshore landlords are running. Are you running a risk? Are you aware of the dangers?" RCMP Cpl. Sanjaya Wijayakoon, head of the Richmond detachment's five-member marijuana squad, said the documentary could help local police in their efforts. "Hopefully it will open the eyes of some of the landlords abroad." Between 50 and 70 per cent of local grow ops are either in homes owned by a Hong Kong native--living either here or abroad--or run by a gardener of Hong Kong descent, Wijayakoon estimates. RCMP believe that in a few cases, property managers are turning a blind eye towards grow ops, and some are actually profiting directly from them. One local real estate agent was arrested in connection with a local grow op bust in recent months. "It's not the majority by any stretch," Wijayakoon said of property managers. The RCMP believe there are as many as 500 marijuana grow ops currently in operation in Richmond. While the number of grow-op busts has been on the increase in the last few years, so has the level of violence. As first revealed in The Richmond Review last weekend, police suspect as many as 20 groups of masked bandits, some well-armed, routinely case local homes looking for secretly grown crops of B.C. bud. It's this battle between marijuana growers and these so-called 'grow rippers' that has police worried for the public's safety. One local property owner, who wished to remain anonymous, said she is at wit's end in her battle with a neighbouring house notorious for being a grow-op over the last few years. The house, on No. 2 Road, has on several occasions been the victim of break-ins by grow rippers and has seen its fair share of violence. Police say the steps she's taken, including querying people when they walk onto the property, are exactly correct. Yet the house continues to be a concern, most recently the victim of an attempted break-in just two weeks ago. Coun. Derek Dang, vice chair of the Community Safety Committee, said the escalating violence and the proliferation of the marijuana grow ops, begs for the city to take another hard look at the battle. Former Richmond mayor Greg Halsey-Brandt struck a marijuana task force more than two years ago, but at the time the chief concern was shoddy wiring resulting in fires. Now, police say, it's the violence that is their top concern in terms of public safety. "I'm very concerned for the safety of the community," Dang said. "We don't have strong enough fines and penalties from the criminal side of things." Dang pledged to raise the issue again at the next community safety meeting, and said stakeholders, such as police, the public and property managers, will be invited to give their input. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake