MARRIAGE MADE IN HELL - GUNS AND GROW-OPS

Inside an unassuming house on the outskirts of Hamilton's downtown
core, city police stumbled upon a bushy crop of marijuana plants. At
150 shrubs, it was a modest grow operation with which the Ontario
family had been sharing its living space.

While police were cutting the plants down, however, other items caught
their attention.

In the bottom drawer of a cabinet on the main floor was a .38-calibre
handgun; underneath the cabinet, inside a duffel bag, was a sawed-off
shotgun and ammunition.

"The guns were absolutely accessible to anyone in that house," said
Det. Sean Moore.

Finding guns inside marijuana grow operations is increasingly common,
police say.

Thursday's shooting deaths of four RCMP officers at a grow operation
in northern Alberta have drawn the most tragic reality from scenarios
drug officers have long privately conjured.

"It was a miracle that we hadn't lost an officer before this," said
Insp. Paul Nadeau, head of the RCMP's Co-ordinated Marijuana
Enforcement Team in Vancouver.

"On an international scale, we've gone from being a consuming nation
of a relatively small amount of drugs of all types to being a source
country for marijuana," said Det. Staff-Sgt. Rick Barnum, manager of
the Ontario Provincial Police's Drug Enforcement Section.

"And when you turn from being a consumer to a producer, then you'd
better be ready to deal with the risks that come with that. Yesterday,
unfortunately, it was a prime example of where we are going," he said.

British Columbia was the first to experience the grow-op epidemic.

It started in earnest in 1999. It still has more private pot gardens
than anywhere else, despite Ontario and Quebec now providing some
competition.

The RCMP in B.C. get an average of 4,500 grow-op reports each year, of
which about 1,500 are raided.

In six per cent of those raids, guns have been seized and, in another
five per cent, police found other weapons, according to a police study
of marijauna operations.

The people arrested inside are not the congenial, counter-culture pot
heads of popular convention, said Insp. Nadeau.

In fact, 41 per cent of those arrested inside a B.C. grow-op have a
previous conviction for a violent offence. They have, on average,
seven prior criminal convictions and a 13-year criminal history.

The OPP have executed 1,822 search warrants on grow operations in
Ontario since 2002, according to police figures.

During those raids, officers have seized 1,985 guns.

"We are seeing and seizing everything from semi-automatic handguns,
Mac-10s, Uzi submachine-guns, high-powered deer rifles and shotguns,"
said Barnum.

More guns are in grow-ops because of both the high values on the crop
and the involvement of organized crime, police said.

"We've been inundated by organized crime grow operations simply
because (gangsters) have recognized that they are hard to find, there
are huge profits and, if they get caught, there is virtually no
sentencing," said Barnum.

"There isn't an organized crime group in this country that isn't
somehow involved in grow-ops," said Insp. Mike Littlejohn of the B.C.
Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, a joint forces agency
targeting organized crime.

Criminal organizations are often working together to get their cash
crop to market, with one group specializing in setting up the gardens
and another specializing in transportation and still others arranging
for sales.