CROWN, DEFENCE DUEL AS DRUG TRIAL WRAPS

An alleged grow-house operator who is linked to the biggest marijuana
bust in Windsor's history pursued a "wealthy" lifestyle while having
no apparent means of support, a trial was told Tuesday.

Federal prosecutor Richard Pollock said Trung Kien Ha, 34, had paid
$40,000 for a new car and owned several properties, including one in
Toronto.

He is one of seven people related by blood or marriage who were
charged after police raided 11 homes and seized $5.5 million worth of
marijuana in 2004.

Ha, the first to stand trial, is charged with production of a
controlled substance, possession of marijuana for the purpose of
trafficking and the theft of electricity at an Acorn Crescent home.

In closing arguments Tuesday, Pollock said investigators kept the
small house owned by the Ha family under surveillance for several weeks.

He said evidence showed Ha was the only person seen entering or
leaving the home, usually parking his car in the garage.

According to neighbours, an Asian man who looked like Ha was seen
cutting the lawn regularly, although no one seemed to live there,
Pollock said. Neighbours were suspicious because there was never
anything put out for garbage collection or recycling.

Pollock dismissed suggestions that Ha, on behalf of his father, had
rented the house to an unknown party named David Lee, noting such a
person has never been found and that a social insurance number for Lee
on a utility contract proved bogus.

"Revenue Canada discovered the social insurance number given for Lee
was not valid; the number was never issued," said Pollock. "It was
provided to the utility by a Lee, the putative customer.... In short,
there's no evidence this person exists. David Lee is a fiction,
invented for the purpose of facilitating an offence."

Pollock said there is plenty of evidence tying Ha to the illegal
enterprise, including the seizure of grow-operation equipment,
nutrient guides and a paper trail of bills and receipts.

Defence lawyer Mark Cramer noted that Justice Joseph Quinn last week
ruled the arrest of his client "illegal" because police had stopped
Ha's car after it left the Acorn address using the Highway Traffic Act
as a ruse but without sufficient grounds or probable cause.

Despite the descriptions of "an Asian male," he said, there was no
conclusive evidence that it was Ha who was seen at the house.

Cramer said Ha, or someone else, could have been visiting a tenant or
a friend. He said police and neighbours did not have the house under
24-hour surveillance.