TEENS NABBED OUTSIDE GROW-OP

Local teens apparently aren't getting the message that marijuana growing
operations shouldn't be toyed with.

Last Tuesday, a Maple Road resident contacted police after spotting a
couple of teens at the back of a home that contained a suspected marijuana
growing operation.

At the scene, police spoke to the teens and learned that they were in fact
planning to break into the home, and were waiting for three other teens to
bring house-breaking tools.

Police later obtained a search warrant to the home and dismantled the
marijuana grow operation discovered inside.

"They are going to, in blunt terms, get themselves killed," Richmond RCMP
Const. Peter Thiessen warned teenagers.

This is the second such warning issued by police in less than four months.

The first warning came in late October when three 16-year-old boys were
nabbed as they were trying to break into a house on the 5500 block of
Granville Road.

The teens were carrying a long knife and several garbage bags. The house
contained around 400 marijuana plants.

Thiessen reiterated that larger marijuana operations are fraught with
danger because they are generally the handiwork of organized crime, which
will take whatever steps are necessary-even murder-to protect their
investments.

The October incident was particularly disturbing because of its brazen
nature. The teens were willing to break into the home even though they knew
someone was inside.

Thiessen said in October that police intelligence indicates that some youth
seem to think that they are doing the police a favour by breaking into
marijuana growing operations.