Pubdate: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 Source: Edmonton Sun (CN AB) Copyright: 2004, Canoe Limited Partnership. Contact: http://www.fyiedmonton.com/htdocs/edmsun.shtml Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/135 Author: Paul Cowan NEIGHBOURHOOD ROCKED Residents of a quiet Mill Woods cul-de-sac were shocked yesterday to find out that a neighbourhood couple had been picked up in a $2-million police drug swoop. It turns out the older couple didn't really live at 652 Lee Ridge Rd. at all. "They moved in about a year and a half ago and seemed like nice people," said neighbour Bill Buck. "Every second day you'd see them out raking the yard. When I welcomed them to the neighbourhood, they said they didn't speak much English." Buck said the man of the house told him he was a welder. "He said, 'Me work hard for $16 an hour,'" said Buck. But police Green Team member Clayton Sach said no one lived in the home. "There was nothing in there," he said. "Just a marijuana grow operation." The house at Lee Ridge Road was one of three grow operations busted by the joint Edmonton Police Service-RCMP Green Team Wednesday night and yesterday morning. The team had a house at 8323 42 Ave. under observation Wednesday afternoon and when they executed a search warrant, they found 860 marijuana plants valued at $860,000. That led to two further police raids on homes in the Mill Woods area Wednesday. At 3673 86 St., officers seized over 17 kg of marijuana bud. They also raided homes at 388 Richfield Rd. and 107 Lee Ridge Rd. More than $80,000 in cash and bank drafts was found. And yesterday they busted grow-ops at 652 Lee Ridge Rd. - where 669 marijuana plants were found - and 766 Johns Rd. Last night officers were still searching the home at Johns Road, but estimated there were 300 plants there. Buck, 59, said once police turned up at Lee Ridge Road, things started to make sense. "Sometimes there'd be a sweet smell coming from the place. We thought it was just their cooking. In the spring I noticed the stains on the siding, but I thought they just had ventilation problems." Sach said a classic sign of a grow operation is condensation or mould on home sidings. "The first place we raided was black with mould," he said. "It was the worst I've ever seen." Sach said a lot of effort had gone into making it look as though people lived in the grow-op homes. "There was a kid's jumping horse on the porch of the house at Johns Road. But these guys don't live where they run the grow operations." Dennis Davison, 21, said he was also fooled into thinking a family lived in the house at 652 Lee Ridge Rd. "They seemed a really nice family, a man, woman and five kids." Hanh Thi Tran, 31, and Dum Huu Tran, 46, face two charges of production of marijuana, three charges of possession for the purposes of trafficking, two counts of theft of electricity, and two counts of possession of the proceeds of crime. Khu Thi Du, who also goes by the last name Tran, 55, has been charged with two counts each of production of marijuana, possession for the purposes of trafficking, theft of electricity, and one count of possession of the proceeds of crime. Bin Boi Du, 64, and Phong Quan Du, 28, are both charged with possession of the proceeds of crime. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin