SURREY STRIKES AT POT-GROWING OPERATIONS

Police Crack Down On Marijuana Growers By Setting Up A 20-Officer
Team

A newly built home in a quiet family neighbourhood was the third
target of the day on Thursday for a city that is on a new crusade to
rid its neighbourhoods of marijuana growing operations.

One hour after a group of Surrey RCMP officers took a battering ram to
the front door of the shingled house, children could be heard playing
at a nearby school playground and there was no visible evidence of
criminal activity.

Bicycles were lined up in the garage next to a blue box full of
recycling and -- besides the bars on the windows -- the house looked
like any other $400,000 house on the street.

But inside, police said they found several hundred marijuana plants, a
wireless surveillance system and steel-fortified doors to keep
intruders out.

The bust earlier that day was part of a new initiative by Surrey RCMP
and about 10 other agencies to crack down on growing operations in
that city.

Twenty officers have been assigned specifically to combat growing
operations and had executed three marijuana-related search warrants by
noon Thursday.

"We want the message to be very simple and clear. If you are growing
marijuana in Surrey, it's only a matter of time before we visit you,"
Surrey Constable Tim Shields said at a news conference in front of the
Fraser Heights home that police had searched about one hour earlier.

As media gathered outside the house, officers were still waiting for
the residents to arrive home. Minutes before the conference was to
begin, an officer spotted the residents pull up to the street and then
drive away when they saw the cameras and police.

Two officers sped off in an unmarked RCMP vehicle with their sirens
blaring and about 30 minutes later, Shields said, a man and woman in
their early 40s were arrested in connection to the growing operation
and police found about $10,000 in cash in the car.

In a curious twist, the couple were returning from a court date
related to another growing operation when they were arrested.

In 2002, Surrey RCMP investigated 658 growing operations, but Shields
said those likely form only a small percentage of the number operating
in the city.

In June, about 150 Fraser Heights residents gathered at a high school
to discuss the growing problem of growing operations in affluent
neighbourhoods.

That high school is around the corner from the house that was searched
Thursday.

Growing operations are often associated with drive-by shootings, home
invasions, homicides, money laundering, cross-border importation,
outlaw motorcycle gangs and Asian gangs.

Shields said the growing operation searched Thursday -- in the
11000-block of 159th Street -- was likely run by Vietnamese organized
crime.

Su T Phan is the registered owner of the home, but it is not clear
whether he was the man arrested Thursday.

Since June, three Surrey properties associated with growing operations
have been seized by the Crown as proceeds of crime.

There are another 11 properties that are under "restraint," meaning
they cannot be bought or sold pending a court decision on whether they
must be forfeited.

Shields said houses are not the only proceeds of crime that are being
seized in relation to growing operations.

"We are going after homes, vehicles and sometimes even high-end
furniture inside the homes," he said.

Indicators that a home is a growing operation include condensation on
the windows, an absence of frost on the roof, a skunky odour coming
from the house and frequent visitors at unusual times of the day,
Shields said.

Surrey RCMP is partnering with several government and private agencies
to tackle growing operations, including Block Watch, B.C. Hydro,
Surrey bylaw officers, firefighters, Crimestoppers, the city
engineering department, the ministry of children and family
development, Canada Customs and Revenue, the Fraser Valley Real Estate
Board and the Greater Vancouver Home Builders' Association