POLICE BRACE FOR HUGE POT CROP

Outdoor Grow Ops Gaining Root Here

RCMP Staff Sgt. John Fleming, unit commander of the RCMP drug section in
Manitoba, is listening intently to crop reports lately, but it isn't wheat
or canola he's interested in.

Warm weather means an early harvest time for crops, including marijuana,
and the next big outdoor grow-op bust could be just days away.

"We're definitely coming up on that cycle," said Fleming, who hears plants
are maturing quickly. "What that tells me is that the harvesting season
could be a little sooner this year than last year."

Last year was the first time organized crime bought rural Manitoba land
specifically to set up outdoor marijuana-growing operations with thousands
of plants and Fleming is waiting to see if the trend continues this season.

Outdoor marijuana crops have turned up in Manitoba for years, but they've
traditionally held only a couple of hundred plants grown by locals for
local distribution. That changed last year when Mounties raided seven to
nine massive outdoor operations between August and October, including huge
operations near Oak Lake and Arden.

The massive outdoor growing operations were connected to Asian gangs based
in Toronto and Vancouver, Fleming said. Those arrested during raids were
usually immigrants hired to be marijuana farmers in Manitoba and, unlike
traditional grow operations, the harvest from the gang-related operations
wasn't for local use. Based on surveillance done before police raided grows
in Inwood and Sundown, police allege marijuana was grown, packaged, loaded
into rental vans and shipped east along the Trans-Canada Highway.

"In this case the product was returning to Ontario," said Fleming. "What
they were going to do with it when it got to Ontario we're not privy to."

Vigilance pays off Organized crime introduced large outdoor marijuana grow
operations to Manitoba last year, but police discovered a powerful
crime-fighting tool that helped them find and shut them down -- alert
farmers and other rural residents.

"One of the big things that these folks neglected to consider was this is
'Friendly Manitoba,' " said RCMP Staff Sgt. John Fleming, unit commander of
the RCMP drug section in Manitoba. "In virtually all of the cases there was
a component of information received from the community."

Things to watch for:

* new neighbours who don't come out for social events;

* chains and "No Trespassing" signs at the ends of driveways;

* farmers who claim to be raising livestock but have no animals visible on
their land;

* farmers who do not clear fields of brush right to the road so they can
conceal their crop; or

* farmers who cannot accurately describe the farm equipment they are using.

Report suspicions to local police or Manitoba Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.