WONG SKIPS OUT; DOZENS OF CASES STILL BEFORE COURTS

THE alleged mastermind behind Manitoba's largest marijuana grow
operation has avoided prosecution by somehow slipping out of Canada
while the subject of an undercover police investigation, the Free
Press has learned.

Khyong Wong -- who also goes by the name of Simon Wong -- is being
sought on a Canada-wide warrant. His most recent address was in
Burnaby, B.C., but justice sources say he has likely returned to his
native Hong Kong.

Wong, 43, has lived in various provinces including B.C., Manitoba and
Ontario, but would probably not face extradition even if caught
because he is a Chinese national and therefore exempt.

Wong was last spotted in Manitoba in late October 2005 as police
watched him board a WestJet flight to Vancouver, according to court
documents obtained by the Free Press.

B.C. Mounties initially continued surveillance upon his arrival.
Manitoba RCMP Staff Sgt. Steve Saunders said a warrant for Wong's
arrest was issued Oct. 27, 2005 and has not been executed.

He didn't know how Wong managed to flee the country. Wong has been
linked to two major grow operations in Sundown and Inwood, which
police shut down in the fall of 2005. Police have also established a
connection to a sizable grow operation south of Whitewood, Sask.

Wong has also been linked to an empty warehouse on Park Lane Avenue in
Winnipeg that police believe was being used to stash the drugs before
shipment down south.

RCMP found the accused in Sundown -- 25 men and three women --
sleeping side-by-side, head-to-toe in every room of a tiny,
700-square-foot house during an early-morning raid last October.

While they were packed like sardines, more than 10,000 mature pot
plants were thriving in four sprawling greenhouses sitting on the same
rural farm property, which was hidden from the public by a thick
curtain of trees.

RCMP say the Sundown operation alone could have yielded the owners
nearly $19 million in street-level sales.

The migrant workers, most of whom don't speak English and have no
criminal records, were recruited from Toronto to help with the "fall
harvest" by doing menial tasks such as watering plants and picking
leaves, court was told.

One woman, a 48-year-old single mother on welfare, claims she was
approached by a man in the Chinese community and told she could make
upwards of $300 per day if she came to Manitoba -- her airfare would
be provided -- to work for a couple of weeks.

"She was, essentially, a leaf picker. Her job was to remove the leaves
off the plants, and she didn't even realize what type of plants these
were. She has never been involved in crime or the drug world and
didn't even know this was illegal," said defence lawyer Mike Cook. He
said many of the accused were in the same situation as his client --
struggling financially, recent immigrants or citizens of the country
who were living in Toronto and looking for a "big break."

The language barrier and large number of accused meant many people sat
in custody for weeks before obtaining lawyers and being released on
bail.

One of the 28 has since pleaded guilty and was sentenced to time in
custody of nine months, which was given double-time credit. All other
accused remain before the courts, including five other suspects
arrested in connection with the Manitoba operations.

Yet Wong has managed to dodge the legal bullet.

He has a minor criminal record out of Montreal for crimes involving
possession of an instrument to commit forgery and disposing of a
stolen credit card.