OTTAWA TO SEIZE GROW-OP HOUSES

One Home Taken For The First Time In B.C., Nine Others Targeted

For the first time in B.C., the federal Crown has seized a home used by the
owner as a marijuana-growing operation and Surrey Mounties are vowing to go
after at least nine other homes in the city.

The $439,000 house was officially forfeited to the Crown June 11 when Bich
Ngoc Vu pleaded guilty to production of a controlled substance in Surrey
Provincial Court.

Surrey RCMP spokesman Constable Tim Shields confirmed Friday that Vu's
sister's home next door at 10859 166A St. has been restrained by the Crown
(meaning it cannot be bought or sold) as Ngoc Thi Nguyen awaits her trial
for allegedly running a growing operation in that home.

Both homes were raided March 4 by members of the Surrey RCMP drug section.
They found a sophisticated 397-plant grow-op inside Vu's home that included
a hydro bypass, surveillance cameras and a motion-detection system designed
to shut off the hydro bypass as anyone approached the exterior meter.

Vu was charged with possession for the purposes of trafficking, theft of
hydro and production of a controlled substance. The possession and theft
charges were dropped, but Vu was sentenced to a 12-month conditional
sentence on the production charge. The forfeiture of the house at 10865
166A St. was included in her plea agreement.

Vu is also co-owner of two Abbotsford properties. Nguyen owns additional
property in Langley and Surrey and is listed as co-owner of two more homes
in Vancouver. The grow-op found in Nguyen's home contained "hundreds" of
plants, Shields said.

Shields said the forfeiture of the home marks a first in B.C. law
enforcement and is only the second time in Canada a home has been seized as
a proceed of crime related to a grow operation. The first seizure took
place April 30 in London, Ontario.

The Surrey home is in fairly good shape for a former grow-op because the
grow itself was mostly confined to the unfinished basement, Shields said.

The Surrey seizure could not have taken place without the cooperation of
the federal Crown and the federal Department of Justice, Shields said.

An additional nine homes used for grow-ops in Surrey (including the one
owned by Vu's sister) are now under restraint, the first stage of the
forfeiture process. The homes range in value between $300,000 and more than
$400,000.

For privacy reasons the addresses of the eight homes cannot be released
until a forfeiture decision is made after the owners go to trial, said Lise
Cantin, director of communications for the Department of Justice B.C. region.

Shields said the ability to seize homes from owners using them as grow
operations is a powerful new tool in the police arsenal.

"Grow-ops are all about profit -- that's the reason for their existence and
this move has taken the profit out of grow-ops," Shields said.

Revenues from sales of forfeited properties are divided between the
province and the federal government on a case-by-case basis, depending on
the allocation of resources to make the forfeiture, Cantin explained.

Sergeant Chuck McDonald of the RCMP proceeds of crime section said that if
property is seized as a result of work by the provincial Crown, revenue
from the sale of that property goes to the province. If the property is
seized as a result of worked by the federal Crown, the revenues go to the
federal government.

Unlike the U.S., Canadian police do not get a share of the revenue, nor do
cities such as Surrey that fund their own police.

"We're not happy about that at all," said Surrey councillor Gary Tymoschuk.
"That money should come back [to the municipality that funds the police
doing the work]."

The City of Surrey pays for 90 per cent of its RCMP policing budget, while
the federal government chips in the remaining 10 per cent.

Tymoschuk said he would like to proceeds of crime revenue sharing reflect
the funding formula. On May 26 Surrey passed a motion asking the federal
government to return at least a portion of proceeds of crime revenue. That
motion has been forwarded to the Union of B.C. Municipalities and the
Federation of Canadian Municipalities, but Tymoschuk is not optimistic.

"Chances of [achieving a] 90-10, I'm reluctant to say -- it's probably not
that likely," said Tymoschuk.

Bill C-24, passed Dec. 18, 2001, modified forfeiture law in Canada to allow
the Crown to seize all property used in committing a crime. Under the old
regulations, the government could only forfeit property if it was built or
modified in order to carry out the crime.

Shields said the new legislation makes it "somewhat easier" to seize
offence-related property, but it is still a very time consuming and labour
intensive process. The nine restraint orders in Surrey and the forfeiture
of Vu's home have only been possible because Surrey RCMP has allocated two
officers to work full-time on investigations into proceeds of crime
connected with grow operations, said Shields.

Earlier this month, 29-year-old Sanjeev Singh Gill had to forfeit a small
$150,000 warehouse space he used to produce methamphetamine. It took a year
and a half to convict Gill and then convince a judge, in a separate
hearing, that the Crown should get the warehouse.

Vancouver police Constable Sarah Bloor said city police have yet to seize a
home used by the owner as a grow-op because the resources and time required
to go about doing so are prohibitive. However, she said, the deterrent
value of the tactic is clear.

"It certainly could have an impact on the proceeds that go into criminal
acts," Bloor said. "We would always be interested in trying."

David Pitts, who lives in the same affluent Fraser Heights neighbourhood as
Vu's home, said the threat of having to forfeit one's home for having a
grow op inside it is certainly a deterrent, but the government could
conceivably go further considering the profits associated with growing
marijuana can be astronomical.

"One good crop would probably pay for it [the home]," said Pitts. "There's
big money in it. Obviously that's why they [growers] are willing to take
the risk."

Pitts believes the financial impact will have to be heavier than just the
home if marijuana grow operations are to be curbed.

"Maybe just take the house the first time," Pitts said. "If they do it
again -- house and contents."

Police executed a search warrant Friday at a home in the 17000-block of
104A Ave. where they found 493 marijuana plants and arrested two Vietnamese
women and three Vietnamese men. A two-year-old infant in the home at the
time of the raids is now in care of the Ministry of Children and Families.

Shields said RCMP intelligence indicates that Vietnamese gangs and the
Hells Angels are now working cooperatively "to a certain extent" on
marijuana grow-ops.

In March Surrey RCMP estimated there are between 3,500 and 4,500 marijuana
grow operations underway in the city, most of which are associated with
organized crime rings.