MARIJUANA ENFORCEMENT TEAM MEETS NEXT MONTH TO TALK

Joint team battles pot grow-ops

Large, commercial marijuana grow operations in Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam
are about to get tackled by a new RCMP pot squad.

The Marijuana Enforcement Team (MET) will meet with other police forces next
month to find ways to best take them down, effectively and safely.

The dedicated, six-member unit, headed up by Cpl. Dan Pons, will discuss
tactics with members from Burnaby, Vancouver, Surrey and Ridge-Meadows and
other police experts with knowledge on the "growing" industry, which is now
estimated to be worth around $7 billion a year in B.C.

MET, which will start Sept. 13, was formed after city surveys showed
taxpayers wanted grow-ops to be a priority for the local Mounties.

This year alone, the detachment dismantled 44 "grows" in Coquitlam and 16 in
PoCo after tips from neighbours, sources or agencies. Sometimes, police
found the pot farms after firefighters were called to the residence because
of bad wiring.

Last year, Coquitlam RCMP took down 252 grow-ops in Coquitlam and 90 in
PoCo. By comparison, Ridge-Meadows RCMP dismantled 18 grow-ops in 2003 in
neighbouring Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge.

Pons said Coquitlam RCMP's drug section dealt with 351 complaints about
suspicious grow-ops last year; so far this year, the tally is at 257. "Out
of those, you can presume that that is only a third of what's actually out
in the neighbourhood," Pons said.

Last week, he said, the RCMP dismantled five grow-ops, two of which had not
been reported to the detachment. The section found those two homes because
of reported break and enters in progress. "That," Pons said, "we're getting
more and more now where criminals [who] are out there searching for grows
kick in the door in order to do a rip [off]."

Sometimes, they kick in the wrong door. "Then, you're hitting innocent
people," he said. "We do get that once in a