POLICE ATTACK POT PATCHES FROM THE AIR

The Mounties are air bound again this year, spotting and chopping
some of the marijuana grow ops that dot the wooded areas in and
around the Comox Valley.

About 20,000 marijuana plants were destroyed last year -- the
equivalent of 1.5 million joints, give or take -- and the integrated
police team whacking the weeds this year say they are on target for a
similar haul.

"We're definitely going to be very close to last year," said Island
District RCMP spokesperson Const. Darren Lagan.

"That's a significant number of plants -- that will yield anywhere
.. from 50 to 100 marijuana cigarettes from one plant. When you do
the math on 20,000 plants, it's a significant number."

Police took local media to an outdoor grow op about 50 metres off the
Hamm Road exit at the Inland Island Highway on Friday and destroyed
about 100 plants, each about four-feet tall. Depending on the
weather, the marijuana would probably have been ready for harvest in
three to four weeks.

"That's an opportune for us time to get in and take them down, before
they're at the level where they're harvestable and make it to the
streets," said Lagan.

"This one is atypical, being 50 yards off a relatively busy road.
We'll see some of that but we'll also see a greater amount that are
out in the remote areas in very difficult terrain."

The grow was watered from a nearby pond, but in some of the remote
grows, which sometimes have as many as 450 to 500 plants, streams are
diverted for irrigation. Each plant is ensconced in its own grow bag
with fertilized soil.

"In the more remote locations, these are pristine environments," said
Lagan, "so there is a definite impact there that wouldn't have
happened if people weren't setting these up."

This is the ninth year that the integrated team, consisting of RCMP,
Saanich and Victoria police officers, has taken to the skies to spot
and stop outdoor grow ops.

Lagan said the team has seen little change in the number of grow ops
hidden outdoors.

"There is always an abundance of them," he said. "It will change from
year to year -- there are some sites we return to ... but quite often
it's new locations.

"These are extremely lucrative operations and will deliver a lot of
marijuana to the streets for sale or trade, and those funds coming in
from that are definitely connected to organized crime."

During a recent marijuana grow op case in Courtenay Provincial Court,
Crown lawyers estimated that the 3,000 plants seized were worth about
$750,000 to the grower.

By those estimates, police are destroying about $5 million worth of
marijuana each year. That figure could multiply as much as tenfold by
the time the pot hits the streets.

While police would like to catch those involved, it is rare that they
do so for outdoor grows.

"Our primary focus is taking them down, literally, at the root and
stopping them from getting to the street," said Lagan. "We want to
get to it before the people growing it get to it.

"What is grown up here is going to be sold in communities up and down
Vancouver Island and possibly beyond, so there's a benefit for all
communities to see these destroyed and take that amount off the street."

The integrated police team just ramped up their outdoor grow
eradication efforts last week. They would not discuss when the
operation will be complete.

"We've got many sites that have been identified and we'll continue to
do those until we're satisfied that we've got the bulk of the
locations," said Lagan.