POLICE FIND MARIJUANA NURSERY FOR GROW-OPS

A police search of an underground bunker hidden away on a rural
property in the Fraser Canyon revealed a marijuana grow-operation
suspected of being a nursery for other growers who buy young plants.

RCMP officers from Hope and Agassiz detachments arrested two men and a
woman on suspicion of producing and possession for the purpose of
trafficking 3,051 marijuana plants.

"Some grow operations will [involve] the seeds to the finished
product; some others will buy the clones that [have] already started
to grow," Chilliwack RCMP media liaison Const. Bert Paquet said yesterday.

In this case, "it was a matter of seedlings and clones only, which is
the starting stage."

Paquet said, "It definitely indicates that the individuals . . . had a
market to sell it to."

One of the men, a Hope resident, was charged with trafficking as well
as allegedly possessing a loaded handgun, carrying a concealed weapon
and possessing a weapon contrary to a prohibition order.

The investigation began last year.

"We've seen this a few times in the last couple of years -- these
underground bunker operations," said Paquet.

"They seem to be more and more popular for some reason. It's not
really more difficult for us to get the information or get the
evidence needed to obtain a search warrant, whether it is at ground
level or underground."

The intense lights normally used in marijuana grow-ops create a lot of
heat, which must be ventilated somehow.

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 2005 that police flying over a
private property with a forward-looking infrared device -- to create a
crude profile of heat escaping from a residence -- is not an
unreasonable intrusion into a person's right to privacy.

"Maybe there's a false impression that we can't locate those
underground grows as easily. But technology allows us to keep up with
the growers, as far as what kind of new technology or new tricks that
they are trying to use," said Paquet.

The owners of the property on the Trans-Canada Highway in Hope could
face fines, charges and policing costs for the dismantling of the
grow-op under the District of Hope's Controlled Substance Property
Bylaw.