POLICE STUMBLE ON GROW-OP AT SAANICH HOUSE

Some Saanich marijuana growers were not quite quick enough getting out
of Dodge.

An unrelated police visit earlier in the day probably set the scene
for police to stumble onto the pot Thursday evening.

An officer visited a house in the 5700-block of Old West Saanich Road
early Thursday morning on a routine call to check on the welfare of a
woman. Nobody was home, so the evening shift paid a visit.

What police didn't know was that the first visit had been caught on
surveillance video. In the evening, they found five guys loading a
U-Haul rental cube van, said Const. John Price.

Police became suspicious when they started asking the men about the
woman.

"[The suspects] had this sort of deer-caught-in-the-headlights look,"
Price said. "I guess the officers caught that smell that led them to
walk to the back of this van where the back door was open."

Freshly-harvested marijuana plants were hanging to dry in the back of
the van. Boxes of grow equipment were there, too. About 75 marijuana
plants were recovered. In total, approximately 11 kilograms of
marijuana was seized, police said.

A search after a warrant was obtained turned up the remains of a grow
operation in the three-car garage.

The search also revealed surveillance equipment that monitored the
driveway. Price said that when the people got home they likely started
dismantling the grow operation after they saw that police had been on
the property. They had no idea the cops would be back.

Three Saanich residents and two Victoria residents, all males in their
30s, were arrested.

Police said that the 11-kilogram seizure is significant, because when
you break it down to single joints of approximately 0.2 grams, it
equates to approximately 55,000 joints.