Pubdate: Fri, 14 Nov 2003
Source: Surrey Leader (CN BC)
Copyright: 2003 Surrey Leader
Contact:  http://www.surreyleader.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1236
Author: Dan Ferguson
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

POT GROW OP CRACKDOWN

The dull thump of a police battering ram announced the start of a crackdown 
on illegal marijuana grow ops in Surrey on Thursday, as RCMP unveiled a new 
20-officer team dedicated to raiding the illicit operations.

Three grow ops were raided in as many hours, with the possibility of a 
fourth after The Leader's press deadline.

"If you're growing marijuana in Surrey, we're coming after you," Const. Tim 
Shields told a news conference outside the second raid of the day at an 
upscale Fraser Heights home in the 11000 block of 159 St.

It took officers roughly 20 hits with the heavy metal ram to break down the 
reinforced door to the house, which had barred windows, and an elaborate 
alarm system coupled with surveillance video cameras to protect more than 
200 plants.

The couple who live in the house arrived in a car as the raid was in 
progress and fled, pursued by officers.

The two, an Asian man and woman in their 40s, were arrested a few blocks 
away with $10,000 cash in their car.

A resident of the neighbourhood, who asked not to be named, said she knew 
for some time that the house was being used to grow pot.

"At one point, the electrical box outside was smoking," said the resident, 
who called the news of a beefed-up police grow op team "awesome."

Shields said the team will work with municipal, provincial and private 
agencies, including local realtors, to bust more grow ops.

Surrey Coun. Gary Tymoschuk also attended the news conference, saying the 
hiring of 20 new general duty officers has allowed the Surrey detachment to 
reassign investigators to the new team.

"It's not something we are going to tolerate," Tymoschuk said of the 
booming illicit industry.

Local police have been struggling to keep up with the booming marijuana trade.

A study by the Surrey RCMP released last March shows as many as 4,500 
indoor marijuana grow operations are raking in at least $2 billion a year 
in Surrey, many of them operating in new homes.

The study indicates 90 per cent of them are operated by Vietnamese 
organized crime gangs which favour the use of new houses, some worth as 
much as $700,000, to conceal their operations.

Police believe some unscrupulous realtors and home builders are conspiring 
with pot growers to construct new houses specifically designed to 
accommodate grow ops with heavy-duty wiring and ventilation.

While the study did not provide a total value of the Surrey pot trade, a 
conservative estimate of the cash value of the crops ($500,000 to $1 
million annually per house, depending on the number of plants) suggests 
Surrey growers could be making as much as $2.6 billion a year.

In some new neighbourhoods, more than half the homes are believed to be 
concealed growing operations.

This spring, a Leader story detailed the troubles of homeowners in the 
15800-block of 111 Ave. in Guildford, where six of 12 homes on the street 
have been linked to the illegal marijuana growing trade.

For the people who live on the street, sharing their neighbourhood with 
growers has meant sporadic power failures, occasional police raids, and 
constant anxiety about the people who come and go from the silent houses 
with the extra-large vents and shuttered windows.

Pot growing has become big business with Asian gangs and outlaw motorcycle 
clubs squeezing out small independent marijuana growers, according to 
former Surrey grower Randy Caine, who has waged a lengthy court battle to 
repeal Canada's pot laws.

In an interview earlier this year, Caine complained the encroachment of 
organized crime has driven out the "mom-and-pop" growers.

Well-known B.C. marijuana activist Marc Emery believes the best way to 
eliminate indoor grow ops is to legalize marijuana.

"Once it's legal, you'll never see a grow op in a house again," Emery told 
The Leader in a recent interview.

Dana Larsen, the president of the B.C. Marijuana Party, suggested the City 
of Surrey should license indoor growing to address safety concerns instead 
of trying to stamp them out.

"The city licenses escort services," Larsen said Thursday.

"They can license people to grow plants indoors to make sure they use safe 
wiring. They don't have to know it's marijuana."
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager