Source: Vancouver Sun (Canada) Contact: http://www.vancouversun.com/ Pubdate: Wed 18 Mar 1998 Author: David Hogben GRASS IS GREENER IN WIDE-OPEN RIDGE MEADOWS Police say larger building lots and spaces between houses have lured marijuana growers. The wide open spaces that lure urban dwellers to the Ridge Meadows area are also an advantage for illegal marijuana growing operations, according to RCMP Inspector Gary House. The larger lots and spaces between homes are one reason why some persons connected with organized crime have chosen to operate in rural areas on the outskirts of Greater Vancouver, House said in a recent interview. ``You have a large area of land around you where you can monitor who is coming on your property,'' House said. Besides, one of the greatest risks to an illegal marijuana growing operation is the possibility that odour could alert passersby, so large rural properties are an advantage. House has named substance abuse as one of the priority crimes his Ridge Meadows police force will combat this year. ``The manufacturing, cultivation and trafficking of illegal substances and the role of organized crime in these activities is having an impact on our community,'' House said in a recent letter to the mayors of Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows in which he outlined his law enforcement priorities for 1998. The emphasis on fighting illegal marijuana production and distribution complements another police department priority: combatting property crime offences. House said many criminals who commit property offences ``commit break and enters to fence goods, so they can have money to buy drugs.'' Law enforcement officials in Vancouver have recently linked many raids of marijuana growing operations to the Hells Angels motorcycle gang members, but House would not make a similar connection with the Ridge Meadows operations. ``We have some indication that some of the grow operations we have dismantled have been part of organized crime,'' he said. But House said he is not able to link the operations to any specific organized crime group. In September 1997, Ridge Meadows RCMP created a so-called Green Team to combat growing operations. That step was taken after the RCMP identified about 100 growing operations in their jurisdiction. The Green Team, comprised of six officers, took down 16 grow operations, involving about $1.6 million worth of marijuana, in three months. Because of the large number of operations in rented homes, the RCMP decided to warn owners of suspect residences. Many landlords ignore what is going on in their rental property as long as the rent cheque comes in every month without problems. They do that at their own peril, House said, if the renters are growing marijuana. ``We have seen them where they chop out walls, where they chop holes in the ceiling to vent the smell. It definitely decreases the property value,'' he said.