POLICE BATTLE GROW-OPS

A recent crackdown by the Port Moody Police Department on 12 homes with
marijuana grow operations "just about wiped us out," its chief says.

And Chief Paul Shrive said it's unlikely officers will do another round soon
because of the lack of resources and manpower available to the department.

"Grow-ops are a priority, but we can just do the best we can with the
resources that we've got," Shrive said at a public forum last month at PoMo
city hall to address the concerns from the community after the crackdown.

Organizing grow-op raids can take a long time, Shrive said: search warrants
have to be in place, dismantling can only be done by sworn police officers
and the subsequent paperwork for Crown Counsel has to be co-ordinated. Each
grow-op takes 100 hours to dismantle and costs about $3,000 for the work.

Shrive described the latest round of grow operations in PoMo as a "scam."

Instead of using rental homes, growers bought houses in new, high-end
sub-divisions on Heritage Mountain, where homes can fetch up to $500,000.

On one street, police recognized the same Christmas decoration on four
homes, leading them to believe something suspicious was happening inside.

Shrive said, after 35 years as a police officer, he's still surprised at
B.C.'s approach to pot (he previously worked for the Ontario Provincial
Police).

"There has to be a change of attitude," he told the crowd of 25 people at
the forum, "otherwise, we will get no further ahead. This is a growing
problem."

Alex Tyakoff, who works with B.C.'s Organized Crime Agency, said all
grow-ops lead to organized crime, tied through brokerage or distribution.

"The feeling is that [grow operations] are a mom-and-pop operation and
they're harmless," he said. "No, they're not. It's a very lucrative
commodity."

And the further south B.C. bud travels, the more the price goes up. In
Seattle, weed from B.C. costs about $3,000 U.S. a pound; in Los Angeles,
$5,000/lb.

Tyakoff said cannabis cultivation used to be dominated by outlaw motorcycle
gangs. Now, veteran criminals from Vietnam are taking over the market. Many
have set up in Alberta and Ontario to sell their B.C. bud harvest, Tyakoff
said.