DRUG DEALERS UPGRADE WEAPONRY TO PROTECT MARIJUANA
GROW-OPS

OTTAWA -- An Increasing Number of People Armed With High-Powered
Firearms and Booby Traps Are Protecting Marijuana Grow Operations
From Thieves, or "Pot Pirates," Canadian Police Forces Say.

Traps such as nails driven into weighted wooden boards and suspended
overhead in trees, and spikes attached to tied-back tree saplings,
are being increasingly found during police investigations, Det. Supt.
Frank Elbers of the Ontario Provincial Police drug enforcement
section said yesterday.

Weapons are often meant to protect lucrative grow operations from
raiders, but they have raised concerns about the safety of police
officers and residents, Elbers said.

"The traps we saw in the past, [used] more to lightly wound or scare
someone off, have turned into security measures," he said, adding one
OPP officer had been injured during an investigation by stepping on a
hidden nail-covered board at a growing operation west of Ottawa.

"I don't think they're out for police, but booby traps don't
distinguish," he said.

Officers are also finding "everything from machetes to machine-guns"
used for protection, Elbers said. Police have also found bunker-type
hideouts and bulletproof vests.

Police cited examples of an apparent trend toward weapons. In
September, a shooting at an Ottawa-area farm found to contain a grow
operation left one man dead and two others seriously injured.

Another man was shot in late September during a home invasion in
which two men barged into his home near Portland, 90 kilometres south
of Ottawa, posing as police officers.

In the past five years, Ontario Provincial Police have investigated
almost 3,000 grow operations and destroyed 1.2 million plants, Elbers
said, adding that people should report suspicious activity to police
or Crime Stoppers.