MAN ACCUSED OF RUNNING GROW-OP OUT OF ABANDONED SCHOOL

Marijuana Operation Found In Empty School Near Mayfair

A Mayfair man is on trial, accused of running a marijuana grow
operation in an abandoned rural Saskatchewan school, the fruits of
which could have netted a seller up to $120,000, according to a
police drug expert.

RCMP Cpl. Christopher Thomas, once a Saskatoon drug investigator and
now an organized crime investigator in Ottawa, said a grow operation
found in an empty school in Mayfair, 145 kilometres northwest of
Saskatoon, contained enough plants to produce a minimum of 10.5
kilograms of marijuana. If the bud could stay indefinitely potent,
that would be enough marijuana for a heavy user to smoke five joints
a day for 22.8 years, Thomas told a Saskatoon provincial court last month.

"The amount found at this Mayfair school would not be consistent with
that for personal use, just because of the sheer amount, you wouldn't
be able to store the marijuana long enough to use it all," he said.

Mark John Evanishen, 34, is charged with possession, production and
trafficking of a controlled substance, along with firearms charges
and breaching court conditions.

In early March, an undercover RCMP officer, whose name is protected
by a publication ban, told provincial court Judge Robert Jackson that
police had received information there may have been a drug operation
on the Mayfair area farm of a man who also owned the abandoned school building.

Police arranged for the installation of a device on a power pole that
measured changes in electricity use at the school and observed
consistently high power use between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. daily, the
officer said. Before obtaining a search warrant, police also used an
infrared scanner to look for suspicious pockets of heat in the school
and flew a plane over both the school and the owner's farm to look for clues.

After police got a search warrant for the school, officers went into
the building on the evening of Feb. 23, 2005. The undercover officer,
who oversaw the investigation, said police found marijuana plants in
several rooms and Evanishen alone in the building.

"(Evanishen) basically said at that point the marijuana grow
operation was his, that nobody else was involved, that he had a right
to have it because some judge said he needed to have it for his
medical condition," the officer said.

"He also said that he rarely leaves the school," he added. "His
living environment sort of indicated that. He was very thin at the time."

Const. Mark Ochitwa, an RCMP officer with the Saskatoon integrated
drug unit and the man responsible for tallying the evidence, later
told the court police seized 52 small starter plants, 15 mid-sized
marijuana plants, 23 vegetating, or growing but not budding,
marijuana plants and 27 budding plants, located in four different rooms.

One room also had a bed, dresser, TV and shelves where Evanishen
apparently lived, he said. In the bedroom dresser was a shotgun
loaded with two rounds and 18 rounds of loose ammunition.

Ochitwa cataloged a bowl, razor blades and isopropyl alcohol found in
the school, which could be used to extract the potent ingredient THC
from marijuana plant "shake," or the leaves and stems of the plant,
which contain lower levels of THC than the bud.

Under cross-examination by Evanishen's lawyer, Bill Roe, Ochitwa said
police did not find any score sheets, money or plastic bags in the
school -- evidence Roe suggested would be indicative of a drug trafficker.

Thomas testified the school grow operation was a sophisticated one.
The operator had arranged the plants in such a way to ensure
continual production, he said. He or she cultivated six parent plants
from which to produce clippings, dedicated another room to growing
the plants larger by simulating summertime sunlight using lamps on
timers, and finally, tricking a third group of plants into budding by
simulating autumn light conditions. The cultivator also flanked the
plants with a reflective material that helped maximize light directed
at the plants. In a report on the bust, Thomas said if all the plants
were put in conditions to stimulate budding, they could produce a
minimum of 10.5 kg of weed. Street prices of marijuana vary based on
the quantities buyers want, Thomas said. If sold by the pound, a 10.5
kg stash could bring in $60,450. If sold by the most lucrative
portion, the quarter ounce, the seller could earn $120,000, he said.

Roe attempted to bring doubt to Thomas's evidence by saying his
calculations were based on assumptions of how well a typical plant
produces, how long the plant would be potent for and the idea all
plants would ultimately be forced to bud. Evanishen's lawyer also
attempted to discredit the undercover offi cer's testimony by
pointing out much of the evidence he collected leading up to his
application for a search warrant of the school did not signal
anything untoward.

The officer agreed with Roe during cross-examination that an
infra-red exam of the school actually showed the east wing of the
building where the grow operation was eventually found turned up
cooler during the scan -- the opposite result of what one would
expect if a grow operation was present.

Roe had also argued any evidence gathered during the police's search
of the school should be inadmissible because there was not enough
evidence for a justice of the peace to have reasonably granted police
a search warrant. Jackson rejected Roe's application and ruled the
evidence could be used. Although the defence was to present its case
Monday, Roe asked for an adjournment to obtain medical records he
intends to present in his client's defence. The case will be back in
court June 1. Evanishen, meanwhile, remains in custody.