HTTP/1.0 200 OK Content-Type: text/html Drug Dealers Upgrade Weaponry To Protect Marijuana 
Pubdate: Fri, 24 Nov 2006
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2006 Times Colonist
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: Neco Cockburn, CanWest News Service

DRUG DEALERS UPGRADE WEAPONRY TO PROTECT MARIJUANA
GROW-OPS

OTTAWA -- An Increasing Number of People Armed With High-Powered 
Firearms and Booby Traps Are Protecting Marijuana Grow Operations 
 From Thieves, or "Pot Pirates," Canadian Police Forces Say.

Traps such as nails driven into weighted wooden boards and suspended 
overhead in trees, and spikes attached to tied-back tree saplings, 
are being increasingly found during police investigations, Det. Supt. 
Frank Elbers of the Ontario Provincial Police drug enforcement 
section said yesterday.

Weapons are often meant to protect lucrative grow operations from 
raiders, but they have raised concerns about the safety of police 
officers and residents, Elbers said.

"The traps we saw in the past, [used] more to lightly wound or scare 
someone off, have turned into security measures," he said, adding one 
OPP officer had been injured during an investigation by stepping on a 
hidden nail-covered board at a growing operation west of Ottawa.

"I don't think they're out for police, but booby traps don't 
distinguish," he said.

Officers are also finding "everything from machetes to machine-guns" 
used for protection, Elbers said. Police have also found bunker-type 
hideouts and bulletproof vests.

Police cited examples of an apparent trend toward weapons. In 
September, a shooting at an Ottawa-area farm found to contain a grow 
operation left one man dead and two others seriously injured.

Another man was shot in late September during a home invasion in 
which two men barged into his home near Portland, 90 kilometres south 
of Ottawa, posing as police officers.

In the past five years, Ontario Provincial Police have investigated 
almost 3,000 grow operations and destroyed 1.2 million plants, Elbers 
said, adding that people should report suspicious activity to police 
or Crime Stoppers.
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