RCMP'S GREEN TEAM BUSTS IN ON LOCAL GROW OPS

They didn't announce it until yesterday but the Kelowna RCMP Green
Team has been busy lately raiding 23 large gang-related marijuana
grow houses since the end of October.

Sgt. Tim Shields, head of the drug enforcement unit, and Const. Annie
Linteau, detachment spokeswoman, laid out the details of the team's
work in a media briefing yesterday morning, which included a short
video of one of the raids at an undisclosed location.

Linteau said the 12-member team had seized a total of 10,500 plants,
arrested 21 people and had charges pending against another 14 people
who police have yet to locate. She estimated the street value of the
seized plants at over $8 million.

"This project has been so far successful and produced admirable
results," said Linteau, who linked all of the busts to organized crime.

Sgt. Shields said police had evidence from the raids that tied some
of them directly to the Independent Soldiers, a largely Indo-Canadian
gang, and Vietnamese gangs as well as indirect evidence tying some of
the grow houses to the Hell's Angels.

Shields said many of the houses the drug squad entered had reinforced
doors but no guns or booby traps were discovered during any of the
raids.

He characterized the grow houses as "large scale commercial
operations capable of producing large amounts of marijuana," and said
the bulk of the product was likely intended to be smuggled into the
United States.

One of the operations, located inside a large barn near Oyama, had
216 lights inside and was capable of growing 10,000 plants at a time,
he said.

Linteau and Shields emphasized the danger of the large grow houses,
saying they pose a fire risk and a health hazard as well as expose
neighbours to possible death or injury during gang turf wars or rip-offs.

They urged the public to continue phoning in grow house tips to Crime
Stoppers and the local detachment even though the enhanced Green Team
program has now ended.

"Organized crime knows no boundaries," said Linteau. "The money made
by the individuals involved in cultivation are used to fund other
criminal operations. They are clearly a threat to public safety and
well-being and we take every report of a drug operation seriously."

Linteau said police priority lies in larger grow houses but that they
would not ignore a tip on what she termed "mom and pop" operations.

"Obviously we do have to establish priorities," she said. "A larger
marijuana grow operation will take precedence over something with one
plant in somebody's basement but the message is still the same;
growing marijuana is illegal."

RCMP Supt. Bill McKinnon, also at the media briefing, said the raids
had netted a quantity of cash and that police would be moving ahead
with applications for seizure of proceeds of crime from many of the
houses.

Shields said police could not say where the Central Okanagan ranked,
in terms of marijuana production in B.C., but added that the team's
efforts were making a dent in local production. "I have very reliable
information that some growers in Kelowna are dismantling their
operations because of our efforts," he said.

"The word on the street is out thereaE&so we're having some impact."