COPS HARVEST 4,000 POT PLANTS IN RAIDS

In a four-week blitz, the RCMP's South Okanagan Marijuana Grow Eradication
Team has seized enough pot to roll 1.7 million marijuana cigarettes. Police
say the 3,950 plants and nine pounds of drying marijuana bud seized, is
enough to provide each student in the South Okanagan Similkameen, from
kindergarten to Grade 12, access to 142 joints.

The eradication team, led by Penticton Cst. Terry Jacklin, conducted 19
searches on homes in Penticton, Summerland, Oliver, Osoyoos, Okanagan
Falls, Princeton and Westbank.

It's the second year the team has executed a blitz of indoor marijuana grow
operations in the area.

Sgt. Pete McLaren said all communities have a problem with grow operations
and that's why the team is put together. "Some of the smaller detachments
don't have the resources to adequately do theinvestigations. This way they
all help each other out," he said.

McLaren said, however, that the drug problem will not be solved by
enforcement alone.

He said they must use a combination of enforcement and education, such as
the Drug and Alcohol Resistance Education program offered to all Grade 6
students in the Okanagan Skaha School District.

"Ultimately the long-term goal is to try to reduce the demand for the
product, but there won't be benefits until years down the road," said McLaren.

In addition to the marijuana and associated grow equipment, police seized
seven firearms, mostly for unsafe storage. Jacklin said police are starting
to see other weapons used to protect grow operations. Also seized were
baseball bats, bear spray, axe handles, axes, machetes and knives.

There was also $2,450 in cash seized and about $10,000 in stolen
property,including a 1998 Bombardier Sea Doo personal water craft and
trailer. Ironically, at one Oliver home, police recovered a metal Drug Free
School Zone sign which had been posted in Penticton.

RCMP have arrested 24 people in connection with the busts. The 24 - 19
males and five females - face charges of production of a controlled
substance and possession of a controlled substance for trafficking.

One of those arrested is linked to the search operation in Okanagan Falls,
the one in Westbank and one of six that took place in Penticton.

In Penticton, the searches were carried out at homes on Pineview Road,
Dauphin Avenue, Eckhardt Avenue, Government Street. and two on Upper Bench
Road.

All but one are rental properties. Police said rental property owners need
to make sure they know who is renting their homes and even take the time to
make monthly inspections of the premise, something which can be written
into a tenancy agreement.

"They (owners) often never know it's going on and never suspect that would
happen," said Jacklin. McLaren reminds landlords that damage left by grow
operations can reach into the thousands of dollars and is not covered by
insurance.