Pubdate: Wed, 31 Aug 2005 Source: Kamloops This Week (CN BC) Copyright: 2005 Kamloops This Week Contact: http://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1271 Author: Rafe Arnott Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada) POLICE BUST POT WORTH $1 MILLION More than 1,000 pot plants with a street value exceeding $1 million were ripped out of the ground by Mounties on Sunday. Flying low in a helicopter, police swooped in and bagged plants growing in the heavily wooded glades of the Adams Lake area. Cpl. Mike Draper with Chase RCMP said it was the second such operation this year. The numbers are impressive but not out of the ordinary for the region, he said. "When we went out on this thing, as we did in previous years, we expected to pull in at least that many." Draper said despite no arrests being made, the operation was a success. He said stopping the drugs from hitting the streets was a main priority. More growers are utilizing government-owned land to facilitate their grow-ops, he said, as charges are difficult to lay if the drug seizure is not made on private property. Draper said the detachment had received information from sources there were grow operations in the area, but it was known to police as a fertile spot. "We can go out on any given day and fly the area and probably locate outdoor grows this time of year. "B.C. bud is in demand," said Draper. "It's considered the best marijuana in the world, I'm sure quite a bit of it goes south of the border." Being cultivated by individuals, rather than organized crime, most outdoor grow-ops are mom and pop affairs, with recent arrests in Seymour Arm and Pritchard netting elderly criminals - all in their sixties - as opposed to the sophisticated Hells Angels-type operations said Draper, who intimated that organized crime elements tend towards indoor grow-ops, "ones which can be run year-round," Draper said. Older people are attracted to the money as well, "it could even be your parents." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom