GROW-OP POT BARON GETS 4 YEARS' JAIL

One of B.C.'s biggest marijuana growers has been sentenced to four years in
prison.

Don Briere, 50, a former B.C. Marijuana Party provincial candidate, was
also prohibited from owning firearms for 15 years.

Briere pleaded guilty to five counts: production of marijuana, possession
for the purpose of trafficking, the unsafe storage of ammunition, unsafe
storage of a firearm, and laundering $2.3 million.

Surrey provincial court Judge Gurmail Gill said Briere "was the directing
mind" behind a very large operation.

He said the Surrey man must be sentenced to federal time as a "deterrence
and denunciation" of his activities.

Briere controlled a number of grow-ops in the Lower Mainland and other
areas of B.C. between 1991 and 1999 and employed dozens of people.

When Briere was busted in March 1999, police found 113 kilograms of dried
B.C. bud valued at $650,000 and about $50,000 in grow equipment in his
Surrey warehouse.

Police also found $300,000 in cash at his home. Briere also bought
properties in the Lower Mainland and the Interior.

"He was a very busy man," said Gill yesterday.

Briere still faces the Canadian Customs and Revenue Agency which wants $1.3
million in back taxes.