GROW-OPS MOVE INTO UPSCALE SUBDIVISIONS

Homeowners Upset Little Done To Keep Crime From Their Neighbourhood

Residents of an upscale Surrey subdivision say they're living in fear of
marijuana grow operators and are so frustrated with policing they're taking
action.

Neighbours in the Harvest Wine subdivision are speaking out after a bust
last Friday coincided with an attempted grow rip on an innocent family.

They fear violence is escalating in the quiet, 78-home development near
Chimney Hill Elementary School and are organizing a petition to urge city
council to increase penalties for grow-ops.

One resident recently scrawled "Pot Growers Not Welcome!" in spray paint on
a home exposed as a marijuana grow-op.

"There's a lot of fear here, a tremendous amount of fear," said one man,
who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution from marijuana
growers he believes are connected to organized crime.

"People are helpless here. This is a family oriented neighbourhood.

"There are at least 10 homes in this nice neighbourhood of $400,000 homes
within a two-block radius of my home that have been grow-ops."

Cpl. Vince Arsenault of Surrey RCMP's Marijuana Enforcement Team says no
neighbourhood is safe from grow-ops now that criminals have started buying
the homes they grow in.

"Chimney Heights is a very affluent, very nice neighbourhood," Arsenault
said. "But you take a look at Fraser Heights. A lot of the homes there are
$500,000-plus and we're taking down dozens of operations in those areas.
They're all over the place.

"It used to be most of the commercial grow ops [were] in rental housing.

"That is totally not the case anymore. I would say 90-plus per cent are in
owned homes. They buy their own property and it's a way to launder their
money at the same time. And they don't have to worry about the landlord."

In Friday's bust at a home in the 14700-block of 75 A Avenue, police found
$225,000 worth of plants. The home was sold to Thi Xuan Lan Nguyen for
$306,000 in 2003.

Just that morning, the house next door had been broken into, in what
appeared to be a botched grow rip, Arsenault said.

Neighbours say they know of at least four other homes currently operating
as grow-ops. They've reported them to police, but must wait -- sometimes
months -- while police investigate.

"It's a joke," the resident said. "Even if they bust this one, the people
will return the next day. They can be set up for business in a few short
weeks and do it again. We've had police take down a house three times."

Arsenault said his six-member unit is swamped. It has busted 52 grow-ops so
far this year and deals with an average of two grow rips a week.

Getting search warrants is difficult. And in order to charge owners, they
must be arrested on site. But his unit doesn't have the staff to put an
officer on surveillance around the clock.

"It's definitely an uphill battle," he said, adding the encroachment of
grow-ops into virtually all Lower Mainland neighbourhoods -- even high-end
ones --won't stop until municipalities levy fines of at least $20,000
against landlords and until the courts toughen up on sentences.

A second Harvest Wine resident, who asked not to be identified, said paltry
fines are one reason growers aren't deterred.

Surrey currently levies fines of $2,500 to $3,000 on landlords or owners.

"It's starting to scare us," the resident said. "It is escalating, there's
no doubt about it.

"They have monitor cameras on the homes all around. These are not just
mom-and-pop operations."