POLICE LOOK FOR CITY LINK TO LETHBRIDGE POT FARM

Organized Crime Suspected In Grow-Op

A $259,000 pot bust in Lethbridge this week is another sign that local drug
lords are spreading their operations farther afield, investigators say.

"That's definitely something that we're looking at, the association to
Calgary and the association to organized crime groups in Calgary," said
Staff Sgt. Jim Carriere of the Lethbridge Police Service.

It seems to be a rapidly expanding problem in southern Alberta.

The RCMP say Calgary ganja-growers are setting up in places such as
Chestermere and Red Deer, primarily because property is cheaper.

On Tuesday, for the second time in just over two months, officers uncovered
a large operation in a Lethbridge home.

This time, the police found 259 marijuana plants with a street value of
$259,000. A Calgarian now faces several drug-related charges.

The raid happened midday on a quiet street in a southside neighbourhood.

"It's a very unassuming, regular neighbourhood, not a high-crime area,"
Carriere said.

Uniformed patrol officers assisted members of the special operations unit
of the organized crimes section as they swooped in on the home in the 2000
block of 16th Avenue S. Police said most of the house was turned over to
cultivating illicit weed.

The search was prompted by a tip from the public.

"It's a significant seizure. It's a large one for us," Carriere said. "We
believe there are more of them out there, it's just that we haven't
uncovered them."

Fu Ding Lai, 25, was charged with possession of a controlled substance for
the purpose of trafficking and production of a controlled substance.

He was released on bail and is due to appear in a Lethbridge court on March 27.

The bust comes 10 weeks after a similar seizure at another home on the
north side of town.

Police found 189 plants worth $283,500 in the basement of the house in late
December.

Such large seizures are a new trend in southern Alberta's smaller centres.
Police believe the producers are supplying the Calgary market and are
linked to city-based crime rings.

"They've moved out to Chestermere and the smaller communities," Carriere
said. "We're aware of them. We're investigating them with the assistance of
the RCMP in the rural areas around here."

Police have discovered 13 grow-ops so far this year in Chestermere, a
bedroom community of 3,700 people east of Calgary. Mounties seized over $6
million in cannabis and equipment.

Chestermere Mayor Dave Mikkelsen has blamed the phenomenon on the small
community's proximity to a city of close to a million people.

Police say they are well aware of the situation.

"Some of the ones from Chestermere involved people from Calgary," said
Staff Sgt. Birnie Smith, commander of the southern Alberta RCMP drug section.

"We've had people from Calgary involved in ones in the Red Deer area. We
know that they do this. Basically, they go anywhere. There are really no
boundaries."

He said one of the prime reasons is purely financial. It's cheaper to buy
or rent a house outside of the city.

"We know organized crime is involved," Smith said. "They will finance (the
grow-ops), purchase the houses and then just hire crop-sitters to look
after the grows.

"Organized crime will get involved in anything where there is money to be
made. And there's good money in that," he said.