POT HARVEST COULD PRODUCE SURPRISES

Police say growers elsewhere have stooped to diabolical methods when
it comes to protecting their investment.

Harvesting season is just starting for one of the most lucrative cash
crops around - marijuana.

And with the start of clandestine harvesting, RCMP warn the public to
be careful around suspicious fields, since marijuana growers have been
known to resort to such measures as planting booby-traps to ward off
unwanted visitors.

Booby traps could include everything from covered holes and boards
with nails to bear traps, said Sgt. Jamie George, operations NCO of
the Prince County RCMP.

George said the types of booby-traps used by marijuana growers are
only limited "by the imagination," he said.

In parts of Western Canada marijuana growers have set up trip wires
that can trigger shotguns if disturbed, said RCMP Const. Scott
Lundrigan with the Joint Forces Operation.

There haven't been any booby-traps detected on P.E.I. but that doesn't
mean it can't happen, he warned. RCMP have encountered crude early
warning systems consisting of tin cans attached to strings.

Marijuana growers have been known to set up traps on Crown land as
well as private property, so it's possible for blueberry pickers,
hikers and other outdoors enthusiasts to stumble upon an operation,
according to RCMP.

It's best to let police investigate suspicious activities such as
trucks disappearing into the woods in an area several times a week,
said Lundrigan.

RCMP officers from throughout the province as well as officers from
various municipal police forces were involved in raids of fields in
several Prince County locations Friday.

Police, bolstered by an RCMP Air Services helicopter based in Moncton,
N.B., seized approximately 40 plants in a co-ordinated raid, worth up
to $40,000 on the street.

The plants were between three and seven feet in height.

No arrests were made in the sweep, co-ordinated by the Prince District
Joint Forces Operation and using officers from Borden-Carleton Police
Service, the Kensington Police Service and the L Division
Identification Section.