Pubdate: Wed, 14 Sep 2005
Source: Monitor-Examiner (CN NS)
Copyright: 2005 Monitor-Examiner
Contact:  http://www.monitorexaminer.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3467
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

EAST TORBROOK RAID NETS 9,000 POT PLANTS

Annapolis RCMP Make Biggest Marijuana Bust In Nova Scotia History

It may have been the biggest marijuana bust in Nova Scotia history and
it happened in Annapolis County.

A September 4 raid on an isolated and secluded East Torbrook Road
property netted RCMP 9,000 pot plants -- several million dollars worth
and enough to fill a tractor-trailer.

Acting on information received from a 'source,' heavily armed
Annapolis RCMP officers entered the property Sunday evening, met no
resistance, and made one arrest.

Middleton RCMP Sgt. Gordon Haye said police were not taking any
chances and an RCMP emergency response team was part of the takedown.
The team consists of highly trained officers who have expertise in
that field.

Chi Keung Mak, 41, appeared in Kentville provincial court last
Wednesday and was charged with cultivation of marijuana and possession
for the purposes of trafficking. He was to appear in Annapolis Royal
provincial court September 12.

Haye said Friday more charges are possible.

On Monday, Sept. 5, police started the daylong task of pulling out or
cutting off metre-high pot plants in two large fields and loading them
on to two 22-foot-long hay wagons supplied by local farmer Robert
Noble. Police in a Department of Natural Resources helicopter surveyed
the property by air on Monday and photographed the operation.

Police continued their investigation of the property Tuesday under a
search warrant and also used a front-end loader to dump the pot into
an 18-wheel tractor-trailer owned by Twin Mountain Construction of
Kings County.

Bridgetown RCMP Cpl. Steve Hudson talked to media at the entrance to
the property Tuesday, Sept. 6 while two officers from Bridgewater sat
in a parked cruiser guarding the end of the long driveway that snaked
up a hill through heavy trees. A Private Property sign was nailed to a
tree about 75 metres from the pavement.

Hudson said the man arrested was alone on the property when police
arrived with the search warrant. The farmhouse and a medium-sized barn
were located in the middle of a field but the two fields where the pot
was being grown were about 300 or 400 metres away and each one
completely surround by trees and bushes.

He said the larger of the two plots was about the size of a football
field and the two fields combined might have been between three and
four acres.

Hudson said police received information several weeks ago and only
moved in when they felt the time was right.

Annapolis RCMP were helped out by about 40 officers from Bridgewater,
Liverpool, Kings, Digby, and several federal units such as Proceeds
from Crime out of Halifax.

Hudson said police took no chances when they entered the property and
had at least four officers on the scene at all times between Sunday
evening and late Tuesday afternoon when the tractor-trailer finally
made its trip down the driveway headed for an undisclosed destination
in Cape Breton where the pot was to be incinerated.

Haye said it appears the bust may be the largest marijuana bust in
Nova Scotia history.

A neighbour, who lives across the road from No. 544, said the property
used to be the Marshall farm but had changed hands in March. She said
a man of Asian descent showed up and she would see him entering and
leaving the property in a gray minivan.

She only spoke to him once.

"I saw him once when he was putting up the mail box," the neighbour
said. "He said 'hi' and I said 'hi.'"

She said she was told by the man who sold the house that her new
neighbour was Chinese and from Toronto.

The neighbour said she was relieved that the grow operation was
raided.

"It's pretty scary," she said. "I have a four-year-old boy. I don't
need that going on across the road from me."

The neighbour said word in the area is that someone went for a walk on
a fire road and discovered the marijuana plants.

"Then Sunday night we saw the cops go up and we put two and two
together," she said.

Other residents in the area appeared to be happy with the raid as
well. One man drove by and gave police a 'thumbs-up' sign and a woman
stopped and told Hudson she was glad police had removed the 'hooligan'
from the neighbourhood.

Moore said it makes her a little uneasy to think that the operation
may have been linked to organized crime, an avenue police are
investigating.

At the Kentville court appearance, Mak was represented by defence
lawyer Brian Vardigans and was supplied with a Cantonese
interpreter.

Crown attorney Siobhan Doyle had asked for a publication ban because
not only could publication of Mak's name interfere with the ongoing
police investigation, but could put Mak's safety at risk.

Judge Claudine MacDonald said ordering a ban was not within her
jurisdiction and should be left to the judge in Annapolis Royal during
the bail hearing. 
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