CRIME DOES PAY BUT WILL IT STAY?

A special RCMP task force was given one year to see what would happen
if marijuana grow-operations in the Cariboo were given extra attention.

That was one year ago.

The Cariboo Region Integrated Marihuana Enforcement (CRIME) Task Force
was launched in September of 2010 and its future is now cloudy despite
scores of arrests, hundreds of thousands of plants seized and millions
of dollars worth of illegal commerce for the province's rich organized
crime gangs disrupted.

The CRIME Task Force was funded by the RCMP's Federal Drug Enforcement
Branch in partnership with local detachments between 100 Mile House
and Prince George. With the initial year behind it, there are
questions over whether funding will continue or the organization will
be rearranged.

"I have communicated strongly that I would like this program to
continue," said B.C.'s Solicitor General and Minister of Public Safety
Shirley Bond. "I think the RCMP recognizes the good work that's been
done.

"We need to continue having a presence in the Cariboo," she added. "It
is federal responsibility, we have a very strong partnership with
them. This is about public safety and threats to community - from fire
risk to organized crime, so I continue to be hopeful to look at the
importance of building on the good work that's been started here."

RCMP Supt. Rod Booth of North District Headquarters said the
detachments in the Cariboo region responded well to the busts and
arrests. It is onerous for each town's police station to effectively
investigate and prosecute the grow-op epidemic all on their own, he
said.

"CRIME has been a tremendous initiative," Booth said. "It was a pilot
and as a result we have tackled organized crime at the root."

He said extending program is being discussed, but a year's worth of
data has to be considered, as well as the other regions of the north
and province that also have a proliferation of pot plantations funding
Lower Mainland gangs.

"The Cariboo is the nucleus of the problem and there is a plethora of
variables as to why it ended up there most prominently, but it is
happening in a number of regions, and in a big way."

"The task force has been a success and I have a strong desire to see
the funding continue," said Bond. "You can tell by the results that
obviously the decision was a good one. Being proactive in the Cariboo
region we have seen some significant outcomes."

CRIME data was also foundational information when the Provincial
Working Group on Marijuana Grow-Operations was formed in July by Bond
and several partner agencies.

Booth said he did not know when considerations at the federal level
would reach a conclusion but he was optimistic in some concrete
decisions sometime within the next two months.