GROW OPS THE NEW SUBURBAN REALITY

Police Try To Put Brakes On Profitable Drug Operations In Homes

Yesterday afternoon, in a Barrhaven neighbourhood so new the children are
sometimes taller than the trees, police drug and tactical officers raided
two homes within a few blocks of each other.

The clue that gave away one house as a marijuana grow operation was on the
pristine white soffit -- an ugly brown stain caused by moisture that had
saturated the attic insulation and seeped out, then dripped down the siding.

Inside the house on Berrigan Street were 622 marijuana plants. The other
house, a brick-fronted two-storey on North Harrow Street, had 276 plants.
In all, there was almost $900,000 worth of marijuana in the two houses.

In 2000, only two large-scale grow operations were dismantled in Ottawa.
Yet within a month this Barrhaven neighbourhood, still bounded by empty
fields and featuring homes that sell in the $250,000 to $300,000 range, saw
four raids on grow ops.

The police say they have no one in custody and the investigation is ongoing.

"It's premature to say it's organized. Of course it's organized to a
certain degree," said Ottawa police Staff Sgt. Monique Ackland.

"What can you do?" said Sonia Cavlovic, who lives across the street from
the grow operation on North Harrow. "These people must be affluent to buy
these houses. Will it affect the value of our houses and insurance?"

Barrhaven is not the only place where this fear is growing. Police and
government see marijuana grow operations as the new suburban scourge across
the province.

The grow op industry is worth an estimated $13 billion a year in Ontario.
With a $25,000 investment in equipment, a grow op can generate 600 plants a
year and make $600,000 -- more if the crop is exported to the U.S., police say.

Convictions usually carry a suspended sentence and the huge profits make it
very attractive, even if the initial investment includes buying a house.
Besides, police believe they dismantle only 10 to 50 per cent of grow
operations.

On Wednesday, police in Richmond Hill, north of Toronto, found six children
aged 18 months to 15 years old sleeping on bare mattresses in a grow op
along with $320,000 worth of marijuana. Neighbours said a family of eight
lived in the house.

"That house is just the smallest, smallest tip of the iceberg of what is
going on out there," Community Safety Minister Monte Kwinter said on Wednesday.

Agencies ranging from the Children's Aid Society to real estate
associations are so concerned about mushrooming grow ops that the community
safety ministry and the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police are hosting
their first "Green Tide summit" March 4-5 aimed at stemming the tide of
grow operations.

One estimate suggests that 10,000 children live in grow ops in Ontario. And
there have already been two homicides directly related to control over the
marijuana trade in York Region, according to the chiefs of police.

In their Green Tide report released in December, the police chiefs say the
typical grow operation is a residential home in an urban setting worth
$200,000 to $500,000 with an unfinished basement to facilitate wiring, a
fireplace to vent the odour of marijuana, and an attached garage to conceal
the vehicles used to transport the crops.

Typically, it is owned or leased by a person with suspected ties to
organized crime.

Once the operation is set up, a "crop sitter" -- often a recent immigrant
with little knowledge of the rest of the operation -- is paid a small wage
to water the plants and tend to the daily upkeep, says the report.

Staff Sgt. Ackland said in both of yesterday's cases, alert neighbours
pointed out the telltale signs to police.

Clues include homes where the occupant is frequently absent; homes where
garbage or recycled materials are never put out and a bare roof in winter
while all other roofs are covered with snow.

But residents in the Barrhaven neighbourhood report that the people who
lived in the grow ops mowed the lawns, waved to neighbours and turned on
Christmas lights. In one case, the operator explained his absence by saying
he was going overseas.