CHILD IN PROTECTIVE CARE AFTER $3.5M DRUG RAIDS

Alderman Wants Marijuana Houses To Be Bulldozed

After raiding two more suburban pot houses, seizing drugs worth $3.5
million and apprehending a child living in one of them, police and
city hall are vowing to crack down on homes used as "drug factories."

It's believed two south-end homes busted Wednesday are linked to a
third home, in Bridlewood, where investigators found nearly $2
million in marijuana March 4.

Three people are under arrest and the child is in the care of Alberta
Children's Services as a result of this week's busts.

The homes are now sitting empty, deemed unfit for habitation and
condemned by Alberta Health Services.

Police are making an application to the province to seize all three
houses and a car under the Victims Restitution and Compensation Payment Act.

As well, a city alderman wants the fire department to have the
authority to demolish abandoned drug houses, arguing it will speed up
the process of clearing the unsightly homes from neighbourhoods.

Ald. Diane Colley-Urquhart will ask her council colleagues Monday to
increase the fire department's authority to include the ability to
remediate or demolish houses that harboured marijuana grow ops or drug labs.

Wednesday's pot house busts serve to underscore the problem of
suburban property controlled by criminals.

There are about 150 abandoned houses in the city at the moment, of
which about 100 used to be "drug factories," Colley-Urquhart said.

"These houses, once they've been taken down, can sit for a year, two
years, sometimes three years," she said. "I'm asking for us, as a
council, to delegate the authority to the fire chief to deal with
(safety concerns), and if they're not dealt with, bulldoze it down."

Under the Municipal Government Act, the fire department faces fewer
restrictions in dealing with the public safety aspect than the police
would, she added.

While an empty lot isn't ideal, Colley-Urquhart said residents tell
her it would be preferable to a boarded up home with a chain-link
fence around it.

"It's a public safety threat to people who live there,"she said, "and
there's a stigma."

Police said the latest busts have cracked an Asian organized crime ring.

Inside a home on Copperfield Common S. E., police found 1,408
marijuana plants worth an estimated $1.8 million. One man was inside the home.

A simultaneous raid on a home on Somerglen Close S. W. yielded
another 1,314 marijuana plants, worth an estimated$1.7 million.A
woman inside was arrested.A man seen leaving the home was arrested at
a traffic stop nearby.

This year alone police have seized nearly $14 million worth of drugs
from homes in District 8, the city's deep south.

"We're finding a lot of marijuana at this end of the city,"said Sgt.
Steve Kelly of the special duties team.