Pubdate: Fri, 22 Jul 2005
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 The Province
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouver/theprovince/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Author: Matthew Ramsey
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

FOUR SUSPECTS ARRESTED AFTER POLICE UNEARTH POT BUNKER

Alleged pot growers in Chilliwack went down to get high, digging a 
massive underground bunker to house their operation next door to MP 
Chuck Strahl's hobby farm.

Police say four suspects dug a hole 30 metres long by 15 m wide and 
at least 2.5 m deep in the back yard of a home they were renting on 
Farnham Road in the Ryder Lake area.

Twenty officers from various units, including the dog squad and an 
RCMP helicopter, descended on the grow-op Wednesday morning after a tip.

Const. Steve Hiscoe says police found 570 "monster" marijuana plants 
worth at least $500,000 and about $200,000 worth of growing 
equipment. Hiscoe said the bunker was powered by diesel generators 
and had been in operation for about a year, producing at least two 
crops before police shut it down.

The four tenants -- a 50-year-old man, 37-year-old man, 55-year-old 
woman and 30-year-old woman -- were arrested.

"As far as we know, they're not connected to any organized crime," Hiscoe said.

Hiscoe said the bunker was relatively sophisticated. Its wooden 
ceiling was topped with tin and then covered in dirt. Walls were framed in.

How the accused growers were able to dig the hole without anyone 
getting suspicious and then getting rid of more than 1,000 cubic 
metres of dirt is unclear, Hiscoe said.

Strahl, who represents Chilliwack-Kent for the Conservative Party, 
said the land is wooded and the suspect driveway about 300 m long, 
making it impossible to see what's happening on the property.

"They could be bringing freight trucks in there and I wouldn't know 
it," he said.

Strahl's wife and daughter were out for a morning stroll along the 
dead-end gravel road when the "cavalcade of police came by," he said. 
An excavator was at the suspect house yesterday.
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MAP posted-by: Beth