TEENS BREAK INTO GROW-OP

Three 16-year-old males were apprehended by police as they were
trying to break into a marijuana grow operation at a house on the
5500 block of Granville Road Wednesday afternoon around 1 p.m.

Brandishing a long knife and several garbage bags, the teens were
spotted by a passerby as they attempted to enter the house through a
window.

The incident has sparked a warning from Richmond RCMP that teenagers
who are considering breaking into marijuana grow operations are
placing themselves in a great deal of danger.

Larger marijuana grow operations are generally the handiwork of
organized crime, which will take whatever steps are necessary to
protect their investments, even murder, police say.

The house on Granville Road contained up to 400 plants, a size that
Richmond RCMP Const. Peter Thiessen said generally indicates the
involvement of organized crime.

The brazen nature of the break-in was also noteworthy.

Investigators believe the teens tried to break into the house even
though they were aware that there was somebody inside.

Police arrested the middle-aged woman they found inside the house and
her common-law husband, who arrived at the scene after police began
investigating.

The couple has an 11-year-old daughter, but it wasn't known whether
she was home at the time of the attempted break-in.

Thiessen said police intelligence indicates that some youth seem to
think that they are doing police a favour by breaking into marijuana
grow operations.

"They better think twice," Thiessen said.