ORGANIZED CRIME FRONTING GROW OPERATIONS

Police Are Concerned About Violence Connected With Coast Grow Operations

Marijuana grow operations are not just a few pot plants mixed in with the
backyard tomatoes.

According to Sechelt RCMP Staff Sgt. Linton Robinson, the three to four
"substantial grows a month" they are catching are sophisticated operations
which RCMP believe are backed by organized crime, "with strong connotations
of the Hell's Angel's biker gang, as well as other organized crime rings."

Robinson says he believes these are only one-tenth of the grows out there,
"and that's a low estimate. I'm sure there's even more," Robinson said,
adding they no longer even look for the little table-top grows anymore
because the 100 to 200 marijuana grows are so commonplace, "and there's a
lot of violence connected to them, as well."

Robinson says many, if not most, of the large-scale grow operations have
weapons on the site. "We've found everything from hand-guns to machine guns
up here on the Sunshine Coast."

He recounts one grow operation which had a child's bedroom with a grow-room
on either side. "That child would have been sucking in so many fumes, it's
not funny," Robinson said, adding the hazardous pesticides and fertilizers
would also have contaminated the entire house.

"Typically, organizers (such as Hell's Angel's or other financial backers)
find people who will assume all the risk, all the work of growing for them,
in exhange for the equipment and a few cloned plants. The lure is that the
grower reeives a guaranteed income whether the crop succeeds or not. When
the plants mature, the orgnizers just collect the mature plants and leave,
until the next crop."

Most of the grow operations are done in rented houses which usually "causes
a lot of damage. A lot of innocent landlords discover $25,000 to $30,000
damage to their house, which insurance won't cover." To set up a grow, a
room is completely sealed off, dry-walling over the windows and sliding
doors. "But they keep the glass window on the outside, complete with
curtains, so it's hard to spot." Robinson says the carpeting is ripped up,
the room is gutted, and even the wiring is redone to accomodate higher
wattage. The room must have a fresh intake as well as ventilation for the
stale air and fumes to escape. The scent, Robinson says, is distinctive,
and is one of the few ways of spotting a grow-op. The humidity destroys the
drywall and wood, molding the room and floors.

Linton says these grow operations can produce three to four crops a year,
each containing 100 to 200 plants. Each plant yields five or six ounces of
"bud," plus other plant material. "And when you think that marijuana plant
bud will trade pound for pound for cocaine in the United States, well, you
do the math on what that's worth," Robinson said.

The marijuana residue on the seized equipment is so thick, the RCMP members
handling it use latex gloves to prevent the sticky resin from absorbing
into their skin.

As an example of the sophisticated technology used in these operations, and
the evidence that organized crime is supporting it, Robinson shows a cache
of confiscated grow-equipment.

"These bulbs are worth about $300 each," Sechelt RCMP Staff Sgt. Linton
Robinson said, adding there are several in the cache. The bulbs are fat,
with two chambers, the inner chamber a high-wattage light bulb, and the
outer chamber which holds water to keep the bulb from over-heating and
scorching the plants.

"It's a very complex system of lighting and fans rotating on tracks to
simulate natural ultra-violet light. If you look closely at the bulbs, you
can see how some have thin bulbs inside, and some are thicker. They
progressively change the lighting as the plant matures," Robinson says.

The equipment used for the typical marijuana grow operations ring up at a
whopping $20,000 to $30,000, very sophisticated and much too expensive for
the persons actually using it.

"You can't just walk into the business. Your average joe-blow would never
have the training or the money. That's why we know there's a definite
organized crime element," Robinson said, adding that in the past the highly
complicated systems were shocking, "but not anymore. It could be anyone --
even your next-door neighbour. It's a business. A money thing."

Robinson says landlords should be aware their house could easily be used
for a grow operation.

"We recently busted two guys, one a lawyer from Vancouver, who had a grow
operation on a piece of property on the Sunshine Coast," Robinson said.
"This is not a youth problem. These people involved in the grow operations
are 30, 40 or more years old."