GUNFIRE SPRAYS ABBY HOME

Grow-Op Likely Target Of Shooting

Residents of a quiet Abbotsford neighbourhood were woken up to the
sound of automatic gunfire just before 5 a.m. Thursday.

Police immediately converged on an area just off Delair Road near the
Sumas highway exit after taking multiple 911 calls and conducted a
block-by-block search, quickly finding several shell casings in front
of a non-descript home in the 34700 block of Hamon Drive.

As officers approached the residence they came across a 29-year-old
male attempting to flee the scene and arrested him. A subsequent
search of the home to locate victims, suspects or weapons turned up a
large-scale marijuana grow operation.

Const. Ian MacDonald with the APD said the man in custody is known to
police for a variety of charges, and that no weapons were recovered by
officers at the scene.

As an investigator crouched on the ground tagging and bagging nine
marked shell casings, another officer commented that houses on either
side of the targeted home had both been raided for grow-ops in the
past two years.

MacDonald said investigators will be on scene for some time to gather
forensic evidence and that a warrant is being procured for officers to
conduct a more thorough search of the residence.

"We don't know if it was a drive-by or an attempted [grow-op] rip,"
said MacDonald.

"With the casings located where they are we're going to have to
determine what exactly transpired before we came upon it."

Anyone with information on the incident is asked to call the
Abbotsford Police Department at 604-859-5225, or Crime Stoppers at
1-800-222-TIPS.

In a related story, the RCMP announced on Thursday that they had made
the largest pot bust in Chilliwack history with the seizure of more
than 11,500 plants with a street value exceeding $3 million in a
co-ordinated raid the day before.

The raid on Wednesday saw the arrest of a 61-year-old Chilliwack man
who has been remanded in custody as the investigation continues.

The huge operation was located in a concealed underground bunker that
featured highly sophisticated closed-circuit, remote camera monitoring
systems, as well as booby traps that released bear spray.

An elevator-style hydralic lift provided access to four seperate areas
for cannibis production.

A Quonset hut had been constructed over the bunker access to give the
illusion of a legitimate building on the site.

Water used to irrigate the plants was being siphoned off a stream and
estimates put the amount of electricity stolen from BC Hydro to run
the venture at $400,000.