BOOBY-TRAPPED POT PATCHES ARE AN INCREASING HAZARD TO INTRUDERS, POLICE WARN

OTTAWA (CP) - Thieves who seek a free buzz by raiding illicit marijuana
crops could wind up getting blasted, police warned Wednesday.

"You run the risk of being shot," said Det.-Sgt. Paul Henry, a drug
enforcement officer with Ontario Provincial Police. He led reporters
through a trip-wired thicket behind an OPP detachment Wednesday to display
the Rambo-like techniques favoured by some less-than-mellow growers.

Hazards increasingly faced by police and pot patch intruders include:
shotguns poised to go off if a wire is disturbed; razor blades embedded in
plant stalks; fishing hooks that dangle at face level from fine line;
boards bristling with nails; and bear traps that will crush a human ankle.

Then there are the alarms, also trip-wired, and surveillance cameras that
will trigger a usually armed response.

"We're finding a great deal more traps . . . Certainly our members are
getting hurt by these things."

It's more difficult to gauge incidents involving the public because they
aren't often reported, Henry said. But two men in separate incidents
suffered non-fatal gunshot wounds last year in Ontario while fleeing
cultivation sites, he said.

As it launches its annual crackdown on illegal outdoor growing operations,
the OPP is urging people to avoid suspected pot plots and call police.

A mature marijuana plant can yield about $1,000 on the street, Henry said.
Outdoor patches average some 300 plants and tend to be hidden among other
crops such as corn, or grown on Crown land or abandoned property.

Henry has watched Canada's illegal pot business grow over the last 18 years
into a booming export industry with increasingly high stakes.

Earlier this summer, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration
announced plans to open an office in Vancouver to help co-ordinate
investigations with B.C. police into the province's huge marijuana trade.

The agency said the office, the first in Canada outside of Ottawa, is
especially concerned that a large portion of B.C. pot is being smuggled
into the U.S.

A cross-border bust announced by the RCMP this week turned up more than $1
million Cdn in cash, 270 kilograms of marijuana from homes in the U.S. and
Canada and 24,000 pot plants.

Booby traps have been used by a small number of growers across Canada for
years, and they've become more prevalent as the illicit trade grows, says
RCMP Const. Pierre Jean.

"They target other people who might steal their stuff. But it's not new and
our officers are on the lookout for that when they seize marijuana culture.
They have to be careful every time they go."