PLANTING A DEADLY TRAP PIRATES FOUGHT WITH RAZORS, SPIKED
BOARDS

NAPANEE -- Marijuana growers trying to protect their crops from
"pirates" are carrying more weapons and laying deadlier traps,
threatening the lives of cops and citizens alike, OPP officers warned
yesterday.

These booby traps are meant to kill or maim people -- dubbed "pot
pirates" by provincial police -- who are stealing marijuana crops.

Police fear it's just a matter of time before a cop gets caught in
the deadly crossfire.

"I don't necessarily feel that the traps are set up for the police,
but of course traps can't distinguish between who they're going to
hurt," said Det.-Supt. Frank Elbers of the OPP drug enforcement section.

Although no provincial officer has been killed by a booby-trapped
grow operation -- yet -- officers have been injured by stepping on
camouflaged nail-studded wooden planks.

"Five years ago dealing with grows, or even less than five years ago,
we just went in and started eradiating or arresting," Elbers said.
"But now we have had to change our tactics to ensure that we're
approaching these things safely."

Just as frightening is the fact that cops are finding weapons ranging
from machine guns and assault rifles to detonator cord and blasting
caps at these criminal operations.

In September, one man was fatally shot in a shoot out at a grow
operation on a large rural property near Greenfield, about an hour's
drive east of Ottawa. Two other men suffered gunshot wounds.

MURDER CHARGE

Police recently charged a person in connection with a murder that was
linked to the theft of marijuana at a grow operation in the Cobourg
area four years ago.

The violence that has erupted at grow operations, combined with the
proliferation of traps, has the OPP warning citizens who may
unknowingly happen across a grow operation use utmost caution --
don't try to deal with it themselves and immediately call police.

"We have had unsuspecting hunters who have come across grows and were
confronted by armed people saying get away," said Elbers. "Thank
goodness we have never had anyone injured by a booby trap."

Grow operations have always posed a threat to the safety of raiding
police officers.

The difference was that most of the traps found consisted of fish
hooks dangling in the plants or razor blades inserted in the stalk to
deter people from grabbing the plants to steal them.

Now there are elaborate booby traps combined with concealed
observation and security posts that can be dug into the ground or
built out of trees and brush.

'ELABORATE'

Elbers said it all has to do with growers wanting to protect the
plants from pot pirates.

"We had never seen observation posts or the hole dug in the ground,"
he said. "Or something as elaborate as a huge crib filled with rocks
and stuff with big huge spikes or a sapling with spikes through it
with leaves covering it.

"It's like something out of a Sylvester Stallone movie."

GROWING PAINS

Marijuana Grow Operations by the Numbers:

So far this year, OPP have investigated 450 indoor and outdoor grow
operations and destroyed 138,993 plants worth an estimated $1,000 each.

Police seized 2,700 weapons during those drug investigations.

Last year, about 350,000 plants were seized.

In the course of the past four years, the OPP Drug Enforcement
section have investigated 2,936 marijuana grow operations and have
destroyed 1,136,555 plants.