SWEEP NETS 20 MARIJUANA-GROWING OPERATIONS

Vancouver Raids Part Of National Blitz On Homes Used By Drug Dealers

Vancouver police executed search warrants on 20 homes Wednesday as
part of Operation Green Sweep, a national blitz on marijuana-growing
operations that involved 500 police and yielded at least 136 arrests
and 289 charges across Canada.

At the mid-point of the operation, with about half the Vancouver
warrants executed, Inspector Kash Heed of the city police drug
section speculated the total value of the marijuana seized in
Vancouver alone would be around $5 million.

The majority of the raids were conducted in Ontario, where more than
100 homes were targeted including several in six upscale
neighbourhoods in Ottawa.

About 500 police officers from more than 20 police agencies
participated in the raids, under a plan initiated last November by
Ontario's York regional police, in consultation with a member of the
Vancouver drug squad.

Other Lower Mainland police detachments that participated in the
event included Surrey, Burnaby, Richmond, Coquitlam, Langley and Port
Moody.

Other Canadian cities involved include Calgary, Edmonton, Regina and
Winnipeg and there were provincial operations in Quebec and Nova
Scotia.

According to York region Detective Mike Klimm, 28 children were found
in raided homes across the country, including two in Vancouver.

Police don't expect to have a final total on the number of charges
and arrests, or the value of the seized marijuana, before Friday.

Klimm said the total number of grow operations raided will be close to 200.

Most of the Vancouver raids were on homes in the southeast part of
the city, and Heed said that in most cases the operations are run by
organized criminal gangs.

"Mainly they're outlaw motorcycle gang-based, or Asian
organized-crime based," Heed said. "They're not just mom-and-pop
operators."

The Vancouver operation involved 53 people including 38 police
officers, fire and city inspectors and B.C. Hydro technicians.

At least four people are facing criminal and other charges as a result.

In addition to two school-age children who were turned over to social
services, police recovered seven dogs that will be sent to the city
pound -- including a 10-week-old male Rottweiler pup that was taken
to an afternoon news conference at which the raids were announced,
and happily nuzzled police and reporters.

Vancouver police also seized $26,000 in dried marijuana bud, $126,000
worth of growing equipment and two replica handguns.

Heed said Vancouver police are getting regular reports from other
jurisdictions that growers who have fled the Lower Mainland are
showing up in Eastern Canada.

Heed could not estimate the number of growing operations in
Vancouver, but said the number for the Lower Mainland has been pegged
as high as 15,000.

Last year, Vancouver police investigated 609 suspected growing
operations and, in spite of the daunting estimate of the total number
of growers, Heed believes his section is having a significant effect.

"We're getting fewer complaints or tips from the community with
regards to grow operations in the city of Vancouver," Heed said.

He said police, along with civic agencies and B.C. Hydro, are getting
more expert at identifying marijuana operations.

He said British Columbia was the province where growing operations
first took root as a sophisticated criminal enterprise.

"Just prior to attending this meeting, I was talking to people in
Waterloo, Ont., regarding the problems they are having, and wanting
us to work with them to assist us to address it.

But he added: "The regional boundaries, the provincial boundaries,
don't come into play any more. They are going all across Canada to
set up their grow operations."

Constable Phil Reid said Burnaby RCMP executed at least 10 warrants,
adding that it's not unusual for the detachment to execute 15
growing-operations warrants in a single week.

"It's an epidemic and when it's taken on on a national basis, we're
pleased to see our brothers and sisters in law enforcement taking
this seriously," Reid said.

He said police continue to welcome tips from the public.

Richmond RCMP Constable Peter Thiessen said police in that city
executed at least four search warrants Wednesday, noting the
detachment makes regular busts and is alarmed by the number of
occasions they're finding children on the premises.

"We're finding children are in amongst these grow-ops. The people
that are running these grow-ops obviously don't have an overwhelming
concern about their children," Thiessen said.

Vancouver media liaison officer Constable Sarah Bloor said one of the
main objectives of Green Sweep was to encourage the public to be
aware of growing operation activity and the physical dangers that the
operations can pose for people living near them.

Captain Rob Jones-Cook of the Vancouver fire department said
firefighters are "extremely concerned" about the operations because
of the risk of fire and explosion -- which pose a risk to other homes
in the vicinity -- from unauthorized and unskilled modifications of
electrical and heating systems.

Homes used as growing operations are typically rental homes where the
landlord or a management company has not exercised vigilance in
screening or keeping up to date with the activities of the tenants.

Most of the homes don't have full-time occupants.

Since 2000, Vancouver civic inspectors have dealt with operations in
1,000 homes and they've had no more than 50 instances where the
landlord rented to someone who wanted to re-establish a marijuana
operation, according to Vancouver licensing deputy chief Barb Windsor.

She said the number of repeats has fallen as the city has increased
its demand for building upgrades after a growing operation is
discovered.

Windsor said the average cost of repairs to a home used as a growing
operation is between $1,000 and $2,000 -- although some homes receive
extensive damage that pushes the cost of repairs to tens of thousands
of dollars.

B.C. Hydro spokeswoman Elisha Odowichuk said the Crown corporation
dealt with 729 electricity diversions by the operations last year.

"This is losing money for B.C. Hydro -- millions of dollars per
year," Odowichuk said. "We're really diligent about trying to get
into civil court and trying to recover those costs, but we don't
recover as much as we would like to, despite our diligence."