POLICE OUTDOOR POT BUSTS YIELD HIGH NUMBERS

POT INDUSTRY: RCMP make impact on a major Kootenay industry they claim
has ties to organized crime

A busy summer of busting outdoor marijuana grow operations in the West
Kootenay has yielded the RCMP a total of 14,130 marijuana plants.

The plants were seized from a total of 88 sites throughout the region,
mostly on crown land, and "conservative" estimates by the Kootenay
Boundary Regional Detachment (KRBD) General Investigation Section
indicate the plants would have yielded a total of 11,500 pounds of
pot.

A total of six people are facing criminal charges as a result of the
police investigations.

Police said the wholesale value of the plants seized ranges from $15
million to $37 million, and a street value of $77.5 million if sold in
individual cigarette (joint) quantities.

KBRD commander, Inspector Nick Romanchuk feels the police
investigations have made an impact on the marijuana trade in the
region and the organized crime police believe to be associated with
it.

"I think we've had an impact," Romanchuk said. "We do know from
another investigation we've been conducting in one of the small
communities that people were telling our investigators that we have
had an impact. The number of plants we've seized has reduced the
supply in this one particular area.

"But we're not naive enough to think we've wiped out the problem by
any stretch of the imagination."

Romanchuk said RCMP in the region will continue to vigorously
investigate marijuana operations in the region to try and drive out
the organized crime associated with them.

"We believe that the marijuana industry is linked to higher level
organized crime and it fuels those activities," Romanchuk said. "This
is something we will be focusing on and targeting into the future."

When asked how deeply police feel organized crime is involved in the
region's marijuana industry, Romanchuk said it's mainly in the areas
of distribution and money laundering.

"For somebody to go out and harvest 50 or 100 pounds of marijuana,
it's difficult for them to sell or trade that outside their
distribution networks," he said. "We know a large quantity of
marijuana every year is smuggled into the U.S. and traded for other
drugs, cash or weapons.

"And there are money laundering networks in place run by organized
crime to deal with the money generated by these activities."

Romanchuk said the new regional command structure organization of the
RCMP in the Kootenay-Boundary helps police more effectively target
organized crime influences on communities.