VANCOUVER HIGH / 'B.C. BUD' PACKS A WALLOP

Vietnamese Gangs Corner A Canadian Growth Industry

[Illustration shows three] "Smokers enjoying marijuana joints in a cafe in
Vancouver, where some restaurants have advertised dishes spiked with "Mary
Jane" even though some coffeehouses have lost their licenses bnecause of
drug abuses. Below, the illegal weed, often found growing in the city's
high-rent districts" [photo of marijuana leaf.]

WEST VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Jean Simpson was out weeding her
perennial beds on a brilliant spring afternoon last month when two vans
pulled up in front of her house, disgorging a squad of police officers in
flak jackets who began marching double time down Kenwood Street. After
knocking on the front door four houses away, they drew their revolvers,
smashed into the million-dollar mansion and emerged minutes later with their
quarry: 78 potted plants.

"I suppose this is not exactly what you'd expect in what's supposed to be
the richest and safest community in Canada," said Mrs. Simpson, a real
estate agent.

But these days, it is hardly an unusual occurrence. With so many houses put
up for rent by absentee owners, Mrs. Simpson's exclusive neighborhood has
become a favored location for British Columbia's fastest-growing industry:
the illegal cultivation of some of the world's most sought-after marijuana.

After years of selective breeding and cuttingedge cultivation techniques,
experts say that "B.C. Bud" has three to five times the potency, or THC
levels, of marijuana grown outdoors in Mexico or the Caribbean. And from its
benign roots as a backyard avocation of aging hippies, the marijuana trade
here has grown into a sophisticated, multibillion-dollar industry that
rivals forestry and tourism in its economic impact and is largely controlled
by Vietnamese crime gangs and the Hell's Angels motorcycle crew.

With most of the marijuana destined for markets south of the border, U.S.
officials have been pressing Canada to take more aggressive steps to halt
the flow of B.C. Bud. Raids on indoor growing houses are now daily
occurrences, while special teams of U.S. and Canadian police, using the
latest military technology, prowl British Columbia's hundreds of miles of
unfenced border every night in search of "mules" carrying hockey equipment
bags stuffed with marijuana.

But with Canadian courts reluctant to give serious jail time to low-level
growers and couriers, even the police concede that their steppedup
enforcement has been ineffective in getting the testimony necessary to win
convictions against kingpins.

"At the end of the day, the court system here doesn't offer much of a
deterrence," said Constable John lbbotson of the Royal Canadian Mounted
Police, who has spent more than a decade in drug enforcement in the
Vancouver area. A recent study by the Vancouver Sun newspaper, in fact,
found that while growing and transporting commercial quantities of marijuana
carry penalties of up to seven years in prison, only one in five people
convicted of the crimes received any jail time - and of those who did,
nearly all could have been out within 45 days. Most of the rest received
fines averaging about $2,000, the annual revenue from one plant.

It is no surprise that British Columbia has become a center of excellence
for the marijuana trade. Much like California, the region became a haven for
baby boomers seeking an alternative lifestyle in the 1970s, and their
liberal and liber-tarian values continue to color life on Canada's "Left
Coast." People can be seen lighting up joints in bars and coffee shops or
even on a central street while certain cafes boast dishes laced with "Mary
Jane."

And with the police already overwhelmed by the growing traffic in cocaine
and heroin, recreational marijuana use was simply not a lawenforcement
priority. Not coincidentally, a solid majority of British Columbian voters
favored some form of legalization.

By the early 1990s, marijuana had become a cottage industry, particularly in
rural areas where declines in the region's traditional fishing, mining and
logging industries had left legions underemployed. Using 1,000-watt metal
halide light bulbs and special indoor growing tech-niques to produ i ce ever
more potent plants, local growers found a new cash crop for export. Local
merchants began to do a brisk business in hy-droponic equipment (there are
now 29 stores listed in the Vancouver yellow pages) while specialized
dial-a-harvest teams sprang up to cut, dry and package the crop for sale. By
the end of the decade, a pound (450 grams) of B.C. Bud was fetching $3,000
across the border in Wash-ington state and $6,000 on the streets of New York
and Los Angeles.

According to Canadian police, it was the local chapter of the Hell's Angels,
reputed to be the richest in North America, that began to bring disciplined
organization to the marijuana trade, integrating a network of independent
growers with an effective distribution network in the United States.
Beginning in 1995, however, the motorcyclists began to be edged out by
Vietnamese gangs that not only recruited low-cost immigrant workers to the
trade but also were more willing to use beatings and murder to shut out
competitors.

"The Vietnamese," a U.S. law enforcement official said, "make the Hell's
Angels look like angels.

Just last month, for example, a 24-year-old Vietnamese immigrant named John
Ly was beaten to death in his rented house in Burnaby, a Vancouver suburb,
where he lived with his wife and children. The police found 140 marijuana
plants growing in the basement. It was the fourth such gangland-style murder
in eight weeks.

INVESTIGATORS SAY the Vietnamese growers follow a disciplined routine. Each
gang has specialists - usually nice, wellspoken young couples -- who lease
houses from property managers. They never move in, but instead send a
professional crew to hook up the necessary heating and ventilation systems.
The crew also arranges an electrical bypass so the local power company is
unable to detect any sudden increase in power use required by the high-watt
bulbs.

Then, a recent immigrant with little or no knowledge of the rest of the
operation is offered the opportunity to live with his family in the house in
return for watering the plants and keeping out of sight. A crew is sent in
every few months to harvest the marijuana and prepare it for export.

In recent months, the tide of public opinion has begun to shift against the
marijuana trade as its impact has begun to be felt in the normally quiet
suburban communities around Vancouver. Local fire departments have reported
dozens of house fires caused by faulty wiring associated with the high-watt
lamps. And the police have blamed gang members for a rash of break-ins at
homes mistakenly identified as rival growing operations.

Last year, British Columbia moved to bring some much-needed coordination to
its underfunded drug enforcement effort, which is divided among dozens of
local jurisdictions, by launching a B.C. Organized Crime Agency with
sweeping new powers and some additional manpower.