MEN ARRESTED OVER BOND-TYPE GROW-OP

(CNS) -Abbotsford police have arrested two men after uncovering a
multimillion-dollar pot grow-op and large ammunition cache under a
barn with a James Bond-like retractable concrete floor.

A 48-year-old Abbotsford man and a 31-year-old Mission man are facing
drug-production, possession and trafficking charges. Members of the
Municipal Integrated Emergency Response Team, Abbotsford police and
the RCMP executed two simultaneous warrants Thursday on a sprawling
property in Abbotsford and on a home in Mission.

Police suspect the grow-op was in operation for several years, and
was capable of producing more than 300 kilograms of marijuana a year.
Abbotsford police Sgt. Dave Schmirler said the underground bunker
featured motion sensors and surveillance equipment along with
advanced construction techniques.

"In my experience, this was probably the most sophisticated grow
operation I've seen or am aware of in Abbotsford," he said.

Schmirler said the facility was several thousand square feet in size,
featured an automated watering and lighting system and housed more
than 1,750 plants with a substantial quantity of dried product also on site.

Several rifles and thousands of rounds of ammunition were also seized
in the raid, which Schmirler described as part of a larger operation.

With marijuana production almost exclusively controlled by organized
crime, Schmirler said the investigation is ongoing and detectives had
not conclusively linked the arrested men to gangs.