MARIJUANA GROWERS TURN NASTY

Crop Protection; Booby Traps, Armed Guards Getting
Common

Marijuana growers in Ontario are resorting to an increasing array of
brutal tactics to protect their outdoor crops, including bear traps,
spike boards and armed guards, warn provincial police.

The alarming security measures were a common discovery during the
OPP's annual marijuana eradication program that wrapped up earlier
this month. Newly released figures show the eight-week operation,
scheduled to coincide with the end of growing season, yielded 118,443
marijuana plants -- 10,000 more than last year -- that police estimate
would have amounted to a street value of about $118-million. More than
200 grow-ops were discovered, resulting in 110 charges against 56 people.

"Marijuana grow-ops pose a real threat to both public and police
safety. The cultivation of marijuana in Ontario has reached epidemic
proportions," OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino said.

Police found grow-ops in the Brockville, Bancroft and Owen Sound
areas, some fields with as many as 9,000 plants. At one grow-op near
Smiths Falls, a barn was found to contain more than 1,500 kilograms of
processed bud ready for sale.

"Since 2002, we've seen a steady increase in outdoor marijuana
growth," said Inspector Bryan Martin of the OPP's drug enforcement
section. "It's economics. It makes sense to have one large plantation
with a single harvest than to have several indoor grow operations to
get the same number of plants."

One grow-op discovered by police near Renfrew last summer contained
40,000 plants, with an estimated street value of more than
$40-million.

With more tracts of rural Ontario land being taken over by marijuana
plantations comes a growing need for organized crime to ward off
police, other criminal groups intent on stealing crops and the public.

Insp. Martin said police are encountering an alarming increase in the
number of booby traps, cameras, armed guards and other security
devices surrounding grow-ops. Common booby traps include hidden animal
traps with metal claws and spike boards suspended from trees designed
to impale trespassers when they step on trip wires. Armed guards,
usually illegal immigrants hired by organized crime, are also becoming
increasingly common, Insp. Martin said.

This summer, police discovered an armed guard and several pitbulls at
a grow-op in Apsley, near Bancroft. The guard was found with a diary
that contained instructions to shoot trespassers.

In another case, two people driving ATVs near Minden last summer
stumbled across a grow-op and were pistol-whipped by armed guards.
When they managed to escape, the guards opened fire, but no one was
injured.

"This isn't a couple of good ole' boys growing a couple of plants in
their backyard. This is a criminal operation and they want to protect
it at any cost," said Insp. Martin, noting his department spends about
60% of its workload dealing with marijuana grow-ops.

The growth of marijuana production in Ontario has also made for a
lucrative trade business with organized crime in the United States, he
said. In a criminal operation known as "brown south, white north,"
marijuana is shipped south in exchange for crystal meth and crack
cocaine, which are then imported to this country.

The U.S. Department of Justice now calls Canada a "source country" for
marijuana. Police also say gangs are trading Ontario-produced
marijuana for cash and guns.

"It's not just grow-op locations that are a public safety threat
because if the marijuana makes it south, drugs and guns come back to
our local communities," Insp. Martin said. "It's a reciprocal effect."

BY THE NUMBERS

118,443 Number of marijuana plants seized by OPP during this year's
eradication program

$1,000 Estimated street value of one marijuana plant

500 Average number of grow-ops discovered by OPP each
year

422 Number of grow-ops discovered by the OPP this year to date