THE HOME THAT GRASS BUILT

When police descended into the basement of a Stonebridge Crescent
house last week, they found what they were looking for.

Close to 2,000 marijuana plants were growing beneath a 1,000-watt
lighting system. There were plastic garbage cans filled with
fertilizer and shelves neatly lined with bottles of chemicals that
"promote growth."

There was a chart, written in Chinese, ostensibly used to document the
various growth stages of plants, police said.

Project Longarm officers used a warrant to search the 16 Stonebridge
Cres. residence last Wednesday and reported finding all the
ingredients of a grow operation inside.

Police confiscated about $2 million worth of marijuana and "offense
related property."

Belleville police Det. Mark Harry was among the team of seven Project
Longarm officers who raided the residence.

He said the upper-level was devoid of anything that might have helped
make the house a home.

"There was no furniture, there was no food. There was nothing in the
cupboards," he said. "That signifies that nobody was living in that
environment."

Although most of the plants were kept in the basement, Harry said the
laundry room upstairs was converted to a cloning room. Inside it,
about 200 baby plants were growing beneath fluorescent lights.

Police also discovered the master bedroom's walk-in closet, upstairs,
had been converted into a ventilation room.

Downstairs was where Project Longarm officers hit the
jackpot.

Pots of marijuana plants, surrounded by fans, neatly lined the
basement beneath a 1,000-watt lighting system, powered by a series of
ballasts.

"They probably had that light (system) on close to 24 hours a day,"
Harry said.

All of the plants in the house were on timers, he said, and lights
were programmed to remain on until plants reached maturity.

"It is the absence of the light that helps them mature in their time
cycle," Harry said.

Since marijuana plants grow toward light, Harry said the lights hung
from the ceiling from metal chains that could be adjusted to
accommodate them as they grew.

A hole was drilled through the basement's cinder block wall and the
electrical lines were tampered with, Staff-Sgt. Mike Graham said.

Marijuana grow operations cause soaring hydro bills and to avoid
alerting suspicion and over-the-top costs growers sometimes tap into
power lines and steal electricity.

Graham said that appeared to have been the case inside 16 Stonebridge
Cres. and Harry quipped that the growers likely didn't hire
professionals to help them with the job.

"I'd venture to say it's not a certified electrician that was putting
this together," Harry said.

Tampered-with electrical lines make an already dangerous job more
risky when officers raid suspected drug dens, Graham said.

"When the drug guys go in, they're dealing with chemicals, they're
dealing with potentially dangerous electrical hook-ups, possible
booby-traps," he said. "We don't know what to expect."

Risks aren't the only costs tagged onto such operations, Graham
said.

When a grower begins an operation, he said, the whole economy pays for
their under-the-table business.

"It's a drain on resources," he said. "There's a loss to the utility
company, mortgage company, bank, neighbourhood, law enforcement team.
It's very expensive (for police)."

Harry said he suspects the owners of the home began renovating it
almost immediately after purchasing it in April. Before it becomes
home to a new family, he said, it will require extensive cleaning.

"There's the potential for mold and mildew and things like that," he
said. "I don't think it's going to be bulldozed."

Most of the houses on Stonebridge Crescent, part of the West Park
Village, were constructed about six years ago and Harry said marijuana
growers are beginning to find newer homes appealing.

"I think the newer neighbourhoods are more advantageous," he said.
"They have larger basements with less obstructions, higher ceilings...
that type of thing."

Graham wouldn't say how officers discovered the grow-operation,
although he did confirm that officers had been monitoring the house.

"It came to our attention through various investigative techniques,"
he said.

Charged in connection with last Wednesday's raid is Zhen He Chen, 42,
of Scarborough. He faces a number of charges including being in a
possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking,
theft of electricity and being in possession of property obtained by
crime.

Project Longarm is a joint-forces drug enforcement team consisting of
officers from various OPP detachments including Quinte West, Bancroft,
Centre Hastings and Prince Edward and the Belleville police.