GROW OPERATIONS EVERYWHERE - AND SO IS THE RCMP DRUG SQUAD

About as far away from the city of Chilliwack as you can get, the RCMP drug
squad on Friday morning shut down the largest marijuana grow-operation
found here this year.

Six kilometres into the hills beyond the intersection of Bailey Road and
Teskey Way (a round trip is actually 14 kilometres because of the road's
twists and turns), past Payne Road and Ryder Lake Road, way past warning
signs of forest fire danger and signs advertising serviceable lots
available, you come to a neighbourhood of large wooded properties with
beautifully rustic vistas of steaming horses stamping in golden pastures
and red-furred dogs chasing ducks in sparkling ponds.

A sharp right turn brings you onto the 49000-block Huston Road. At most
there are three homes from here to Farnham Road, beyond which you come to a
relatively more populated area, but still one where cows stare out at you
from behind wooden fences and dogs bark far in the distance, presumably
guarding a house set back behind the trees.

How the police went about finding a marijuana grow operation in this
remote, sparsely populated area, RCMP Corporal Peter Talvio isn't telling.

A terse "no comment" is his only answer to a request for more details of
the Huston Road drug bust announced in a police news release Saturday.

The release announces 4,292 marijuana plants were seized from a "rural
property located in the 49000-block of Huston Road" after a search warrant
was executed sometime Friday morning.

"Police discovered the marijuana plants in a large outbuilding," the
release continues, and "the location had its own generator to power the
grow operation" which was "best described as a commercial operation
producing marijuana for the illicit market."

A 33-year-old female and a 48-year-old male were arrested Friday on the
site where "both are residents," the release states. Corporal Talvio
wouldn't say if the property is owned or rented.

The two suspects are not named in the release pending formal charges in
Chilliwack provincial court. Both suspects were released on a promise to
appear in court Dec. 19 to face proposed charges of marijuana production
and possession for trafficking purposes.

Corporal Talvio is more willing to talk generally about the outstanding
success of the Chilliwack RCMP detachment's four-officer drug squad.

The Friday pot seizure marks the 45th search warrant requested by the drug
squad so far this year, he says, and the 45th marijuana grow operation shut
down as a result. (The police must have probable cause to search a private
property, and evidence enough to convince a court judge to approve the
warrant, so their information is good enough for a 100 percent success rate.)

The 45 grow operations are "way more" than the total 36 busted in all of
1999, Corporal Talvio adds, and doesn't include the other half-dozen
marijuana grow operations busted by general duty RCMP officers, nor the
dealers in cocaine and other drugs busted by the drug squad.

About 55 grow-ops have been shut down this year, but they are only the tip
of the iceberg of marijuana production in Chilliwack.

Corporal Talvio estimates there are 500 to 1,000 grow operations in the
area policed by the Chilliwack RCMP detachments, and success in shutting
them down is "limited only by our resources" which so far is the four
officers assigned to the drug squad.

Staff Sgt. Stu Fetterly says the Chilliwack detachment has 17 fewer
officers than the 96 it should have to police the municipality and the
surrounding unorganized areas.

If the detachment deploys more resources to shutting down marijuana
grow-operations, other crime-fighting initiatives will suffer, he says. The
RCMP bike patrol, credited with helping to clean up Chilliwack's downtown
area, is now down from six officers to two.

Although four more officers are slated to come on the force in January, it
doesn't make up for those who have left for maternity leave and promotions
to other detachments, Staff Sgt. Fetterly says.

The force has 87 officers to police the municipality, seven for the
unorganized areas like Cultus Lake, and two aboriginal officers.