POLICE HARVEST 3,600 POPPY PODS IN FLOWER-SHOP RAID

Surrey Now

A Surrey man likely faces charges after the Delta police drug squad
raided the JoJo Flowers shop on Scott Road in August and seized 3,600
opium poppy pods.

Police have recommended charges of possession of a controlled
substance and possession for the purpose of trafficking a controlled
substance against the 47-year-old man, whose name was not immediately
released.

The raid took place in the 9400 block of Scott Road on Aug. 13. Delta
police Sgt. Sharlene Brooks said police didn't reveal the results of
the search until now because they didn't want to compromise other
investigations.

"We had a couple of other things we were working on," she
said.

Opium poppy flowers can be dried and ground into powder, which has
some of the same properties as morphine and codeine and is added to
tea. Police seized six kilograms of the powder, 15 kilograms of opium
poppy seeds, a grinding machine, scales, a machete and a replica
pellet handgun, as well as cash. Brooks said police have no any link
between the Delta operation and a huge opium poppy seizure in
Chilliwack on Aug. 23. Some 60,000 plants were found in a field there,
marking the largest opium poppy seizure in Canada.