DRUG KINGPIN SLIPS THROUGH POLICE HANDS

Police say their "No. 1 target" in a major raid on pot-growing operations
controlled by Vietnamese gangs slipped through their fingers Thursday.

Police raided nine operations controlled by a Vietnamese organized-crime
group, eight in Vancouver and xone in Surrey.

However, the suspected ringleader of this group of 16 to 18 people managed
to evade arrest, said Sergeant Randy Elliott, media liaison with the
Organized Crime Agency.

"These things occur and, let's face it, these people [gang leaders] are
fairly wily," Elliott said.

Nonetheless, it's is very likely that police have crippled this group in
terms of their operations, Elliott said.

"Now they have no product, no cash and they will be owing somebody
something," he said.

"There is a problem for them here."

Elliott said that 12 children were in the homes at the time of the raids
and four are presently in the care of the ministry of children and families.

He said that it was likely that the remaining children were left in the
residences with other responsible adults or left with other family members.

Police estimate the value of the pot seized Thursday in the hundreds of
thousands of dollars.

Thursday's raids were a follow-up from raids on March 17 in which 24 search
warrants were executed on the same group in Vancouver, Burnaby and Surrey.

Marijuana-growing and its accompanying problems, including fires from
rewiring to hide the theft of electricity, damage to rented homes and
dangerous booby traps set to discourage break-ins, has spread throughout
the Lower Mainland.

Police blame Vietnamese gangs and outlaw motorcycle clubs for the
proliferation.

In Delta, police have placed newspaper ads in Vietnamese-language
newspapers distributed in North Delta's growing Vietnamese community.

"We are telling them that we'll be seizing the marijuana and any children
found will be turned over to the ministry of children and families. We will
also be charging them with a criminal act and if there are any questions
regarding their immigration status, that will be dealt with too," Delta
Constable Cindy McCluskie recently warned.

Law-enforcement agencies agree that the vast majority of Vietnamese in B.C.
are law-abiding.

But statistics released by the Organized Crime Agency indicate that 85 per
cent of people recently arrested in B.C. for growing marijuana were of
Vietnamese origin, McCluskie said.

The agency estimates that B.C.'s underground cannabis economy is worth $3
billion to $4 billion annually -- putting it among the top five economic
generators in the province.

Elliott estimates there are 7,000-8,000 commercial growing operations in
the Lower Mainland, and 10,000 across the province. There were 2,348
cannabis cultivation offences in B.C. in 1998 -- a 250-per-cent increase in
10 years, according to the most recent statistics.

Arrests have skyrocketed since, and police are on track to shatter all
records in 2000. In one week in April alone, Lower Mainland police acted on
196 search warrants. And Coquitlam RCMP Inspector Earl Moulton,
vice-chairman of the regional operation police managers' committee, says an
average of six murders a year in B.C. are directly attributable to
marijuana-growing and as many as 20 more are indirectly associated to
disputes, rip-offs or bad debts.