Pubdate: Wed, 12 Sep 2007
Source: Winnipeg Sun (CN MB)
Copyright: 2007 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact:  http://www.winnipegsun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/503
Author: Dean Pritchard, Sun Media

'MONEY TOO GOOD'

Immigrant Pot Harvesters Knew Score, Crown Tells Court

Asian immigrants recruited to harvest marijuana at a remote Manitoba
farm didn't call police for fear of losing out on a big payday, a
Crown attorney charged yesterday.

"You were told you could make a lot of money so you didn't want to ask
too many questions," Crown Attorney Anne Turner said during her
cross-examination of accused witness Hui Jin Li.

"I'm going to suggest you had some suspicions something wrong was
going on because the money was too good to be true."

Li, 47, was one of 28 Asian immigrants arrested in October 2005 after
RCMP seized nearly $20 million worth of weed from a farm near Sundown,
a small southeastern Manitoba community near the Canada-U.S. border.
All but one of the suspects had been living in Toronto prior to their
arrest at the farm.

HERBAL MEDICINE

Li and four other suspects are now on trial charged with production of
marijuana and possession for the purpose of trafficking. Their lawyer
Mike Cook is arguing they are innocent of the charges because they did
not know they were doing anything illegal.

Police raided the property Oct. 7 and found the 28 workers sleeping in
a small farmhouse. They also found four massive greenhouses containing
$10.5 million worth of marijuana plants and 2,700 pounds of harvested
bud.

Li, a cook, said he was on vacation walking in Toronto's Chinatown
when a man he barely knew offered him "a job on a farm." He would work
two weeks and earn up to $300 a day, the man said.

Turner questioned why Li would accept such an unusual job offer.

Li said it is common in Chinatown to find jobs informally through word
of mouth.

"It's normal in Chinatown," he said.

Li and co-accused Quan Yong Liang said they thought the marijuana was
some kind of Chinese herbal medicine. They only learned otherwise
following their arrest.
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