Pubdate: Tue, 26 Aug 2008
Source: Comox Valley Echo (CN BC)
Copyright: 2008 Comox Valley Echo
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouverisland/comoxvalleyecho/index.html
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/785
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

POLICE ATTACK POT PATCHES FROM THE AIR

The Mounties are air bound again this year, spotting and chopping 
some of the marijuana grow ops that dot the wooded areas in and 
around the Comox Valley.

About 20,000 marijuana plants were destroyed last year -- the 
equivalent of 1.5 million joints, give or take -- and the integrated 
police team whacking the weeds this year say they are on target for a 
similar haul.

"We're definitely going to be very close to last year," said Island 
District RCMP spokesperson Const. Darren Lagan.

"That's a significant number of plants -- that will yield anywhere 
.. from 50 to 100 marijuana cigarettes from one plant. When you do 
the math on 20,000 plants, it's a significant number."

Police took local media to an outdoor grow op about 50 metres off the 
Hamm Road exit at the Inland Island Highway on Friday and destroyed 
about 100 plants, each about four-feet tall. Depending on the 
weather, the marijuana would probably have been ready for harvest in 
three to four weeks.

"That's an opportune for us time to get in and take them down, before 
they're at the level where they're harvestable and make it to the 
streets," said Lagan.

"This one is atypical, being 50 yards off a relatively busy road. 
We'll see some of that but we'll also see a greater amount that are 
out in the remote areas in very difficult terrain."

The grow was watered from a nearby pond, but in some of the remote 
grows, which sometimes have as many as 450 to 500 plants, streams are 
diverted for irrigation. Each plant is ensconced in its own grow bag 
with fertilized soil.

"In the more remote locations, these are pristine environments," said 
Lagan, "so there is a definite impact there that wouldn't have 
happened if people weren't setting these up."

This is the ninth year that the integrated team, consisting of RCMP, 
Saanich and Victoria police officers, has taken to the skies to spot 
and stop outdoor grow ops.

Lagan said the team has seen little change in the number of grow ops 
hidden outdoors.

"There is always an abundance of them," he said. "It will change from 
year to year -- there are some sites we return to ... but quite often 
it's new locations.

"These are extremely lucrative operations and will deliver a lot of 
marijuana to the streets for sale or trade, and those funds coming in 
from that are definitely connected to organized crime."

During a recent marijuana grow op case in Courtenay Provincial Court, 
Crown lawyers estimated that the 3,000 plants seized were worth about 
$750,000 to the grower.

By those estimates, police are destroying about $5 million worth of 
marijuana each year. That figure could multiply as much as tenfold by 
the time the pot hits the streets.

While police would like to catch those involved, it is rare that they 
do so for outdoor grows.

"Our primary focus is taking them down, literally, at the root and 
stopping them from getting to the street," said Lagan. "We want to 
get to it before the people growing it get to it.

"What is grown up here is going to be sold in communities up and down 
Vancouver Island and possibly beyond, so there's a benefit for all 
communities to see these destroyed and take that amount off the street."

The integrated police team just ramped up their outdoor grow 
eradication efforts last week. They would not discuss when the 
operation will be complete.

"We've got many sites that have been identified and we'll continue to 
do those until we're satisfied that we've got the bulk of the 
locations," said Lagan.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom