POLICE ARREST FIVE, SEIZE 3,000 MARIJUANA PLANTS

RCMP found 3,000 pot plants in a sophisticated underground bunker on a
property linked to a B.C. man charged in Washington state in a
multimillion-dollar cross-border drug-smuggling case.

Police arrested five people on Tuesday after executing a search
warrant at the Northway Road home of Colin Hugh Martin in Malakwa,
east of Sicamous.

On Wednesday, RCMP Cpl. Chris Newel wouldn't give the names of those
facing charges of production of a controlled substance and possession
for the purpose of trafficking, because they have yet to make their
first court appearance.

A Seattle judge issued a warrant for Martin and three associates last
December on charges they conspired to import large amounts of
marijuana and ecstasy into the U.S. and to smuggle cocaine back into
Canada using helicopters.

The U.S. is seeking the extradition of Martin, who it alleges headed
the drug gang and sent helicopters he leased for his company, Gorge
Timber, full of drugs to remote landing sites in Washington and Idaho.
The gang is alleged to have smuggled back into B.C. as much as 300
kilos a week of cocaine.

One of the B.C. pilots caught in the U.S., Sam Brown, hanged himself
in a Spokane jail after being arrested in February 2009. He was flying
a helicopter leased by Martin's company.

Martin did not reply to an e-mail request for an interview
Wednesday.

Neighbours on the quiet rural road said they were terrified when
police arrived Tuesday with several vehicles, an ambulance and a
helicopter to search the property.

Newel said police found the marijuana-growing operation under a
7,000-square-foot workshop on the property. The growing room was
accessible only through a steel door raised with a hydraulic cylinder.

"This steel door was part of an elaborate electrical system, which was
utilized to camouflage the actual entry. Steel platforms sitting about
six inches off the floor contained eight 'add-a-phase' electrical
motors," Newel said "When a switch was activated, one of the steel
platforms and five of the motors lifted up, revealing the entry.
Add-a-phase motors are used to convert single-phase electricity to
three-phase and are usually only found in industrial
applications."

Newel said the pot plants were grown in soil planting beds on the
floor. There were contained fans, lights and air-conditioning units.

"There was an underground venting system that allowed warm air and the
odour to exit well away from the shop area, reducing detection," he
said. "I have never seen anything as high-tech or elaborate.
Somebody's put a lot of effort into that."

Newel would not comment on whether police believe the growing
operation was linked to organized crime, but said that generally,
sophisticated large-scale operations are linked to crime groups.

He said there were eight children, ranging in age from a year to 15,
on the property when police arrived. The ministry of children and
families looked after them until their parents were released, he said.

The U.S. indictment alleges Martin and his group used BlackBerrys to
communicate about drug shipments and that Martin sent out a panicked
message after Brown was arrested.

The documents also say Martin called the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration in Seattle on Feb. 25, 2009, and asked for the return
of his helicopter. He later offered to cooperate with U.S. authorities
and claimed to have the "ability to control 70 per cent of the work
that comes out of B.C. and what comes into B.C."