B.C. POLICE SEE LINK BETWEEN GUNS AND GROW OPS

Drug enforcement officers in British Columbia's Lower Mainland are
seeing a budding trend when it comes to marijuana production -- where
there's a grow, there's often a gun.

According to Cpl. Scott Rintoul, RCMP drug and organized crime
awareness coordinator for Vancouver, 10 per cent of all busted grow
ops are found to have weapons. In the old days weapons were often
things like shovels and bats, he said, but today's growers are more
likely to carry firearms instead.

Recent grow house busts in the area have yielded semi and fully
automatic handguns, silencers, machine guns and bulletproof vests.
RCMP Insp. Paul Nadeau leads the province's marijuana enforcement
team, and says the elevated number of attempted thefts of marijuana
crops has led those doing the growing and those doing the stealing to
up the ante when it comes to protection.

Nadeau said there is an attempted grow house rip-off in the region
almost every day, and that he worries it will turn into a contest of
who has the biggest gun. "It's sort of like the wild west, really," he said.

With grow houses hidden in residential neighbourhoods throughout
southern B.C., Nadeau is worried quiet streets could turn into battlegrounds.

"People are scared and I can't say I blame them," he said.

On April 11, Herb Loewen heard eight or nine gunshots ring through
his Surrey neighbourhood just after midnight.

"They put one through the car door. one through the front door and
several through the garage door," Loewen said. He heard a car screech
to halt in front of his Bearcreek Park home right before the shots were fired.

Bobby Heer's home was also shot at that night. One of the bullets
went through his garage, into a washroom, through his baby's room and
out the other side of the house. He said he had no idea why his
family would be targeted and thinks the shooter got the wrong address.

According to the Surrey RCMP, the shooting remains under
investigation as a possible attempt at a grow op rip-off.

Nadeau sees the issue as evidence of the larger problem of expansion
of organized crime in the Lower Mainland. Rintoul also thinks the
booming marijuana market at home and in the United States plays a
significant role.

"It's easy money, but there's a lot of competition and a lot of
demand," he said Tuesday. "There seems to be more of a need for these
people to protect their grows."

Rintoul said the grow house gun boom hasn't yet posed a threat to
police, with those involved more likely to use the guns against other
criminals.

Cpl. Diane Blain of Langley RCMP thinks so, too. "It seems that the
individuals responsible for grow ops out there are more fearful of
their competition than the police," she said.

Police in Mayerthorpe, Alberta may see things differently. In March,
four RCMP officers who were investigating a grow op were shot and
killed by property owner James Roszko, who then killed himself.
Search warrants granted after the death of the officers stated Roszko
was carrying three guns when he died - one was stolen, and the other
two unregistered.