CRACKDOWN PLEDGED ON MARIJUANA GROW-OPS

CALGARY - Marijuana grow operations are flourishing in Alberta's rural
communities as big-city cops crack down on organized crime groups,
government officials and Mounties said Thursday.

And just hours after four RCMP officers were gunned down while at a
grow operation near Mayerthorpe, authorities pledged to consider
tougher penalties for those who cultivate weed.

"The issue of grow-ops is not a ma-and-pa industry, as we've been
saying for a number of years. They are major, serious threats to our
society, and they are major, serious threats to the men and women on
the front line who have to deal with them," said Public Safety
Minister Anne McLellan.

"They are booby-trapped, they are high-risk issues, and major,
organized crime in many cases is involved. This is really a plague in
our society."

Last Year, the Southern Alberta Marijuana Investigative Team seized nearly
81,000 plants -- worth an
estimated $100 million.

It marked a significant increase from 2003, when police took $53
million off the streets. In 2001 and 2002, police seized $9 million
and $19 million, respectively.

Rural police have recently stepped up enforcement in several small
communities east of Calgary, after noticing big-city crime such as
grow operations creep into the area.

"Privacy is a big issue. (They) don't want people to know what they're
doing, and many of them are tied to organized crime," said Staff Sgt.
Glenn De Goeij of the Strathmore RCMP.

"As today clearly shows us, it's not a big-city problem. It's a
problem from one side of the country to the other. Are we seeing an
increase? You bet we are."

Premier Ralph Klein said he was "surprised" such a thing could happen
in the quiet farming community, roughly 110 kilometres northwest of
Edmonton.

But Thursday's tragedy suggests "the criminal mind is changing ... to
move from big cities, so perhaps they won't be noticed as much as they
would in a larger centre," Klein said.

Local drug experts agreed organized crime has filtered out into
smaller areas over the past few years.

Just this week, the Hells Angels were identified by RCMP in Strathmore
as buying a two-acre plot near Calgary's city limits.

The group has long been fingered by law enforcement as one of two
groups heavily involved in growing marijuana in Alberta.

In 2004, the Criminal Intelligence Service Alberta -- the province's
top organized crime investigators -- pointed to Asian organized crime
groups as the largest cultivator.

Just east of Calgary, in the town of Chestermere, marijuana grow
operations have become public enemy No. 1.

Two years ago, the town's mayor declared war on weed farms after a
one-day police bust netted $5 million from seven homes on the same
cul-de-sac.

With evidence that organized crime groups are setting up shop in rural
Alberta, police said they will follow the problem wherever it may try
to hide.

"Just the sheer facts, numbers-wise, there's going to be more (grow
operations) in the city, but we won't neglect the rural areas," said
Staff Sgt. Birnie Smith of the Calgary RCMP drug section. "We know
they're out there."