MASSIVE POT OPERATION RAIDED

Police Suspect City's Biggest Marijuana Warehouse Was Set To
Expand

The suspects behind what Vancouver police believe was the largest
marijuana-growing operation in the city looked like they were planning to
expand, police said Sunday.

When police raided a warehouse in the 1300-block of Frances Street, they
discovered a massive operation of more than 700 plants with a wholesale
value of about $1.3 million, and a street value twice that high.

But police say they also found several boxes of unopened hydroponic
equipment, leading them to believe those behind the operation were planning
to expand into the warehouse's empty second floor.

"There were boxes and boxes of additional equipment," said police spokesman
Detective Scott Driemel. "And there was still the upstairs that could have
been utilized."

The Vancouver police drug squad began surveillance on the Frances Street
warehouse early Saturday morning after learning of the operation and
obtaining a search warrant.

At about 3:30 a.m. a man left the warehouse driving a 1999 Mercedes. Police
stopped the car and arrested the man, finding $10,000 in cash and about
$8,500 worth of marijuana.

At 7 a.m., Vancouver police tried to contact the people remaining in the
warehouse by phone and through a megaphone -- both in English and Cantonese.

When they received no response, the police emergency response team fired
two Arwen rounds -- large rubber bullets -- into the second-floor window.

The five men inside came to the window but refused to come out. Then the
Emergency Response Team broke down the warehouse's front glass door.

Once the front door was broken down, Driemel said, the five suspects inside
came out and gave themselves up voluntarily.

All five -- four adults and one 16-year-old -- were arrested. None of the
suspects, all Asian, has yet been charged and their names have not been
released.

Inside the warehouse, police found a growing operation unlike anything they
had seen before.

"It's probably the most sophisticated hydroponic grow operation that our
drug unit has ever seen in Vancouver," Driemel said. "It was described by
our drug squad unit as so large it looked like a Christmas tree farm."

There were 90 lamps inside the operation, $50,000 worth of hydroponic
equipment and a forklift.

Driemel said most growing operations raided in the city have a wholesale
value of about $100,000-$300,000, with the largest usually around the
half-million mark.

"I don't think we've ever had anything near this," Driemel said.

One of the things that made the value of the growing operation so high was
that most of the plants were close to maturity.

"It appears that we got there just as they were getting ready to harvest,"
Driemel said.

He said police believe this was the group's first crop.

Driemel said the scope of the operation leads police to believe organized
crime was behind it, but he said investigators have not yet identified
which group was involved.

Vancouver police have raided more than 600 growing operations so far this year.