Source: Calgary Sun (Canada)
Contact:  http://www.canoe.ca/CalgarySun/
Pubdate: August 22, 1998
Author: Peter Smith -- Calgary Sun

SEWER WORKER'S NOSE SNIFFS OUT DRUG HOUSE

You know it's all gone to pot the day a sewer worker smells something
strange coming down the pipe.

That was the case when Calgary sewer pipeman Ken Johnston's nose detected
an unusual aroma in a southeast sewage pipe.

A strong smell of marijuana was wafting down the sewer pipe and police were
contacted.

About 75 plants with a street value of $105,000 were seized from a
marijuana hydroponics growing operation in the house attached to Johnston's
sewer pipe.

Johnston and his four-man team were repairing a sewage line in the 3300
block of 12 Ave. S.E., when he smelled the strange odor.

"They were repairing a line and had dug an excavation there," said
Johnston's boss, Mike Caputo, a sewer division supervisor.

Lowell Arsenault, 37, is charged with cultivation of marijuana, possession
of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking and theft of electricity.

Copyright (c) 1998, Canoe Limited Partnership.

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Checked-by: Mike Gogulski