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.