POLICE FIND INCREASE IN BOOBY TRAPS AT GROW-OPS

Marijuana Growers Using Lethal Measures to Protect Illegal Crops

An increasing number of people armed with high-powered guns and booby
traps are protecting marijuana grow operations from thieves, or "pot
pirates," police said yesterday.

Grow op-related shootings have left two people dead in Eastern
Ontario incidents this fall.

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 OPP's drug enforcement section said.

Traps and weapons are often meant to protect lucrative grow
operations from raiders, but they have raised concerns about the
safety of police officers and residents, Det. Supt. 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
that one OPP officer has been injured during an investigation by
stepping on a hidden nail-covered board in the Bancroft area, about
three hours 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"
being used for protection, Det. Supt. 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 a farm found to contain a grow operation
near Maxville 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 order to steal his medicinal
marijuana, which he had a permit to grow.

The OPP said they have investigated 450 indoor and outdoor marijuana
grow operations this year, destroying 138,993 marijuana plants.

In the past five years, OPP have investigated almost 3,000 grow
operations and destroyed 1.2 million plants, Det. Supt. Elbers said,
adding people should report suspicious activity to police or Crime
Stoppers rather than investigating themselves.