SECRETIVE 'GREEN TEAM' KEEPS BUSY IN NANAIMO

Mounties Encounter More Sophisticated Grow-Ops

Marijuana is one of the largest funding sources to organized crime,
according to an expert in the drug trade in B.C.

As many as 10,000 marijuna-growing operations can thrive on any given
day in B.C. and criminals will go to great lengths to hide them.

In Nanaimo, a specialty team of police officers come together to focus
solely on stopping marijuana production.

Nicknamed the 'Green Team', the group works undercover to target
growers and their pot crops. The secretive squad does not disclose its
surveillance methods, identities, how often it rolls out or even how
many officers are on the team.

But it recently wrapped a significant four-month stint, culminating
with its biggest raid of underground urban drug bunkers as they
swarmed five properties in one day in Nanaimo last month.

As criminals have become more sophisticated in their quest to hide
weed, police say they too have also gotten better at detecting the
drugs, although they will not reveal how.

Since October, the Green Team has searched 21 properties, seized more
than 5,000 pot plants, 10 firearms and $50,000 in cash. And they are
not done yet.

GREEN TEAM STATS

From October until mid-January, the team has:

- - Searched 21 properties (including two assisting Ladysmith and
Oceanside detachments)

- - Seized more than 5,000 pot plants

- - Seized more than 10 firearms, plus ammunition

- - Seized more than $50,000 in cash.

- - Twenty people are being investigated or have been charged with
offences in connection with those raids.