CRIME TASK FORCE SEIZED 75,000 PLANTS

Police have seized 75,000 marijuana plants in the Cariboo since a
dedicated task force was established six months ago, but no one has
yet gone before the courts.

Federal RCMP spokesman Const. Michael McLaughlin said police have
recommended charges against 36 people, who have all been released on
promises to appear, but the Crown has yet to approve charges against
any of them.

"When you're dealing with sophisticated investigations, this is
something that is standard procedure for us," McLaughlin said Tuesday
at a press conference in Prince George.

"When you're talking about the scale of these operations, a lot of
investigators have to gather a lot of evidence, and we've got to meet
that beyond-reasonable-doubt proof in court. So you know we're going
to make darn sure we have very solid charges."

The Cariboo Regional Integrated Marijuana Enforcement Task Force was
launched in September 2010 after a public outcry about increased
numbers of suspected pot growers and traffickers in the area.

"After the six-month mark, we can definitively say that the people of
the Cariboo are absolutely right. There is a problem, we are
investigating and we're going to continue to do so," said McLaughlin,
who urged the public to continue reporting suspicious activity.

RCMP North District commander Barry Clark said the "vast majority" of
people arrested in connection with the grow-ops hail from the Lower
Mainland. And, more alarmingly, "a large percentage of these accused
are being investigated for potential ties to Asian-based and other
organized crime groups."

Clark said growers are attracted to the Cariboo by its sparse
population and relatively cheap land, on which they place "purpose-
built" grow structures and leave behind "toxic ponds" filled with
herbicides, diesel fuel and other chemicals used in their operations.

Cariboo North MLA Bob Simpson said he will lobby the provincial
government to establish a civilian remediation team to clean up the
toxic grow-ops, "then figure out the jurisdictional issues, figure out
the back charges from there."

Simpson also said he would work with all levels of government to
ensure the continued operation of the task force, which is currently
only funded through September 2011.

"I think it would be foolish of us to signal to organized crime,
particularly these Asian gangs, that the Cariboo is open for business
again," Simpson said.

CRIME, staffed by between 15 and 25 dedicated RCMP officers, is funded
by an arrangement between municipalities from 100 Mile House to Prince
George and the federal and provincial governments. McLaughlin would
not say what the operation has cost to date, because its
investigations are ongoing.

"At this point, we absolutely would not jeopardize a criminal trial by
releasing things like cost," he said.

Meanwhile, criminologist Darryl Plecas, who also spoke at Tuesday's
press conference, said his statistics show the grow-ops taken down by
CRIME boasted an average of 1,100 plants (the largest, near Williams
Lake, had 8,600) and could be expected to produce annual crops valued
at $500,000.

Plecas studies crime as the RCMP research chair at the University of
the Fraser Valley. He said Cariboo grow-ops have increased in number
and size by five times since the late-1990s, with disproportionate
consequences in the courts.

"People are growing five times as much product, clearly in the range
of where it's hard to imagine they could not have organized crime
connections... (and) we're still giving people sentences as if they
were mom-and-pop operations," Plecas said. "It's mind boggling."