PARENTS ACCUSED AFTER GROW OP BUST

Kids In Danger, Charge Alleges

The parents of two young children have been charged with endangering the
lives of their kids after police uncovered a massive marijuana growing
operation in the family's northeast Calgary home and found a toddler's
shoes scattered amongst a forest of pot plants.

A two-month-old baby and a 21/2-year-old girl were apprehended by
provincial social service workers after police found evidence the children
were exposed to myriad hazards of the basement grow op.

"There's no doubt that they lived in the house, which is a huge risk not
just to kids but to adults as well," Calgary police drug unit Det. Chris
Fileccia said Friday.

"It looks like mom and dad were tending their plants with their kids right
there with them. The plants were taller than a toddler, so you could have
lost track of them pretty quickly."

Police raided the house at 510 Saddlecreek Way N.E. Thursday afternoon and
found 254 pot plants -- worth an estimated $320,000-- growing in the basement.

Also at home were a 23-year-old woman, who was arrested at the scene, and
her two children who were taken into the care of the Children at Risk
Response Team.

Fileccia said the grow op was powered by stolen electricity that posed a
serious threat to the safety of the people living in the house.

"I wouldn't want my two-year-old wandering around where there's wires from
an electrical bypass all over the place," Fileccia said.

"The electrical ballasts were under the stairs where they were easily
accessible. . . . It's just a matter of touching that stuff, with the
moisture in the air and on the floor, and you're dead. It's that simple."

Fileccia said the children's mother and 30-year-old father, who turned
himself in to police Friday morning, have been charged with cultivating
marijuana, possession of drugs with the intent to traffic, electricity
theft and endangering the lives of children.

The house was condemned by the Calgary Health Region.

Alberta Children's Services spokesman Blair Riddle could not comment on the
specifics of the case but said authorities are concerned about the safety
of children exposed to marijuana production.

"They may be exposed to chemicals, mould, carbon monoxide from furnace
ducts that have been bypassed and fire hazards from electrical systems,"
Riddle said.

"And any time you have children in the midst of criminal activity, it is a
threat to their safety," Riddle added.

He said social workers typically attempt to find family members to care for
children seized under such circumstances if their parents are taken into
custody.

Police say finding children living in houses with grow ops is unusual, but
is becoming increasingly common in Calgary and other Canadian cities.

The RCMP's director general of organized crime said earlier this month that
children are found at about one-quarter of all grow-op or drug-lab busts.

"We've tested teddy bears and found residue," Raf Souccar told the Herald
on March 4.