POT HOUSES, A GROWING PROBLEM

Criminals Convert Homes In Unsuspecting Neighbourhoods

NIAGARA FALLS The young woman, holding a child, needed less than 10
minutes of looking through the three-bedroom bungalow before making
an offer to buy the house.

The cozy home was just what she was looking for, she told the real
estate agent.

The elderly homeowner, whose husband had recently died, was glad a
young family would be creating their own fond memories in the house
her husband had lovingly renovated over the the years.

"The real estate agent said it was one the quickest sales she had
ever done," said the woman's grandson, who did not want to be identified.

Was the young mother just a front for pot growers?

Less than six months after the Highland Avenue home changed hands,
Niagara Regional Police forced their way through the front door and
discovered an elaborate marijuana growing operation.

The long ago aromas of large family dinners were replaced by an
overpowering, skunk-like stench of pot.

The wall where Grandpa once sat in his favourite easy chair was
opened drywall, exposing hydro junctions bypassed to allow stolen
electricity to surge into the home and fuel the grow-op.

A back bedroom was now a nursery, with dozens of small seedlings
being warmed by massive 1,000 watt lights. The basement, where a
workshop and carpeted rec room used to be, was now sea of green
blanketed by more than 1,000 marijuana plants in various stages of growth.

Police officers in white protective gear, with face masks to protect
them from mould spores and chemicals began the arduous task of
ripping up the neat rows of waist-high plants and cataloging the
evidence for a future court date.

Investigators estimated the pot's street value at $1 million, making
it one of the largest indoor operations Niagara police have come
across. It likely won't be the last.

On a built-in cabinet in the sparsely-furnished dining room sat a
handful of MLS listings copies of properties up for sale in Niagara
Falls, plus a number of real estate agents' business cards.

The listings were for houses currently for sale from all areas of the
city, from a $184,00 home on Charnwood Avenue to a Stamford Green
Drive property listed at $174,000.

Several listings had "call for viewing," written in pen on the margin.

Police have seen this before.

The growers aren't interested in central air or eat-in kitchens.

They're on the lookout for new properties to house additional crops.

Less than a week after the Highland Avenue bust, the five-member
Niagara police street crime unit in Niagara Falls quashed yet another grow-op.

This time, the operation was housed in an older home on Dorchester Road.

The seizure netted police 175 plants, worth about $175,000.

As with the previous home, the house was once a tidy bungalow less
than a block from an elementary school.

As children and parents walked past each day on their way to school,
they would have had no idea what was going on inside.

With most grow-ops, neighbours see little activity in and around the house.

The homes aren't lived in, rather the crops are tended to by
"gardeners" who spend a few hours a week watering and fertilizing the plants.

There are tell-tale signs a property is home to a grow-op, said Det.
Sgt. Shawn Clarkson, head of the local street crime unit.

Curtains are drawn. Blinds are closed. And there's rarely a car in
the driveway.

"The house gets very little human traffic. You might see people going
in to the house at odd hours, and only for short periods of time,"
Clarkson said.

If the roof of a house is clear while nearby homes are snow-covered,
he said, that could also be an indication of a grow-op as the high
heat and humidity melts away snow and ice.

The grandson of the couple who lived in the Highland Street home said
he often drove by after it was sold, but never suspected a thing.

"I thought somebody's living there and they're enjoying the house," he said.

As with the first grow-up, the Dorchester Road location wasn't lived
in, but there were signs that people would stop by on a regular basis.

A love note written by a young man later arrested by police lamenting
an unrequited love sat on a table in the living room.

Nearby lay a crumpled piece of paper.

In a juvenile hand-written scrawl, the note explained how to provide
optimum growing conditions to produce large crops of marijuana.

Close by were several how-to books, including Small Business
Advantage, and Idiot's Guide to Poker.

Dope growers are gambling with people's lives when they sow their
seeds of the drug underworld, according to the Niagara Falls Fire Department.

The likelihood of a fire in a grow-op is 40 times greater than in a
normal residential house, said fire prevention officer Insp. Jim Jessop.

Also, the huge quantities of chemicals required to grow marijuana
poses a threat to emergency responders and nearby residents.

"You have a huge amount of fertilizer, herbicides, fungicides and
pesticides and the risk of explosion is a real threat when all those
chemicals are mixed together," Jessop added.

Along with the risk of fire, there's also the risk of electrocution
from the bypassed hydro wires that snake through the buildings.

Often, furnaces are altered to provide the plants with humidity and
carbon dioxide.

That process leads to the production of deadly carbon monoxide gases.

Then there is the structural damage done to accommodate the grow
operation: Holes are made in floors, walls and ceilings for pipes,
hoses and wires.

"When you're dealing with holes in floors and ceilings, it allows for
the passage of fire from room to room without any warning. When the
area is thick with smoke, firefighters can't see and we've had guys
put their legs through floors," Jessop said.

He said grow-ops destroy homes and neighborhoods often, toxic mould
and structural damage make the building uninhabitable.

Another danger for emergency crews are booby-traps set up by growers
to prevent theft.

Law enforcement officials across Canada have come across grow-ops
with electrical set-ups, gas traps and bear traps.

There have been cases of gardeners arming themselves with guns and
knives to protect their investment.

Clarkson said Niagara police haven't come across any traps yet, but
it is something that is always on the minds of detectives when they
conduct a raid.

"You have to be constantly on guard. It's always a possibility,
because these grow-ops are worth so much money to these people," Clarkson said.

Police say criminal organizations are the driving force behind the
larger grow-ops.

"If there is a grow-op in your neighbourhood, the criminal element
will be here all the time," said acting Det. Staff Sgt. Craig Coates,
adding marijuana grow-labs are intrinsically linked to illegal
gambling, prostitution, extortion and murder.

While grow-ops have been a problem for police for several years, the
number of grow-op seizures is on the rise in Niagara.

In January alone, police made a slew of raids on indoor grow-ops
across the region.

On Jan. 18, $149,000 in marijuana was seized at a Merritt Avenue
place. Seven days later, $332,000 in pot was seized following a raid
at a Scott Street home.

Also, a raid at a home on Chapel Hill Crescent in Welland netted
police $35,000 in marijuana plants.

While the dollar figure attached to each bust is substantial, recent
raids pale in comparison to a 2004 raid in Barrie.

Police executed a search warrant in November 2004 at the former
Molson brewery and discovered about 30,000 plans worth $300 million.

It was the largest, most sophisticated grow-op in Canadian history.

More than 20 of the factory's giant beer vats had been turned into
greenhouses. The elaborate operation included living quarters for 27
people, with a kitchen and games room.

Seven men were arrested, including a 24-year-old Niagara Falls man
and a 34-year-old St. Catharines resident.

They were sentenced to three and a half years and five years behind
bars, respectively.

Niagara police say the recent spate of grow-op seizures does not mean
there are more operations out there than in past years, rather it's
because the public has had enough of criminal activity in their backyards.

"A lot of our recent seizures are based on information we received
from the public," Coates said. "The public is paying attention to
their neighbourhoods."