ON THE HUNT FOR POT

While the recent seizure of 9,000 marijuana plants in Annapolis County
received much media attention, RCMP have been quietly picking away at
smaller growing operations in the Valley.

Kings RCMP say they've pulled more than 1,000 plants out of the ground
in secluded spots so far this fall.

While that may not sound like much in the grand scheme of things, with
an average street value of $2,000 each, it adds up.

Combined with 800 or so indoor plants taken this year, that's a
$3.6-million haul in Kings County alone.

"It's a fair amount of change," said Const. Al Philpott of the Kings
detachment.

On a mild September day the Mounties want to check a few sites on
South Mountain, so they've called in an RCMP helicopter to scout the
locations.

Public tips usually lead police to the grow-ops, which are found off
logging roads and ATV trails, as well as on farmland.

Because the tipsters often give only a general location, the
helicopter is used to spot the plants and guide in teams on the ground.

Besides looking for sites based on tips, they're also scanning for
other grow-ops.

On South Mountain, thousands of marijuana plants are grown every
year.

It's 11 a.m. and Const. Philpott and three other Mounties wait near a
road that will carry them into the woods where a grow site has been
spotted.

They're in two marked SUVs, one of which hauls a pair of ATVs on a
trailer.

Most of the outdoor grow-ops are in wooded areas off logging roads or
dirt roads, and many of the sites aren't accessible for a full-sized
vehicle, even with four-wheel drive.

The chopper radioes in that the site has already been cleared
out.

Running the helicopter is expensive, and police want to have a few
potential sites to check before putting it in the air.

But that also means time delays, and with September peak harvest time,
some sites can be harvested by the time there are enough tips to make
the chopper trip worthwhile.

Const. Philpott said police usually wait for tips on three to six
sites before booking the helicopter. If there are only a couple of
solid tips they will go out with ATVs, but only if the location is
very specific.

"The information has to be very good," he said.

"It's hard to find anything on the ground unless you know exactly
where you' re going."

Another potential site also turns up empty, so it's time to move to
another area of the mountain.

This one is further back in the woods off logging roads and requires a
bumpy ride on a narrow side road, so the SUVs are parked in favour of
the ATVs.

The helicopter is refuelling, so Const. Philpott and the rest of the
team - constables Angela Williams, Ted Mugford and Craig Foley - start
searching the area identified by the tipster.

They can't find anything, although at one point Const. Mugford said he
"caught a whiff" of something.

The pungent smell of marijuana plants can be carried on the wind, but
there' s no sign of anything here.

The chopper returns and makes a wider sweep, but the crew can't see
plants or a spot where they might have been.

The chopper sets down and Const. Foley gets in. He'll help spot from
the air over South Alton.

Dense woods near this community and others along Highway 12 are a
favourite spot of growers, Const. Philpott said. Almost 200 plants
were taken from the area just a week before these searches.

Const. Foley isn't long into the reconnaissance mission when he spots
a site. The SUVs are parked and the ATVs taken off the trailer to work
their way along an old woods road. The woods are thick and branches
snap across driver and passenger.

It soon becomes apparent that the chopper is hovering over a spot the
road doesn't lead to, so the officers approach on foot.

The site is about 170 metres off the road, and Const. Mugford uses a
machete to clear a path.

The chopper blades cause a lot of turbulence and the smell of the
plants comes through the woods before anyone reaches the clearing.
Some of the plants have been stripped of leaves and buds already, and
a low fence of chicken wire surrounds the 12 full plants and six
stalks. The plants are hacked off or pulled out by the roots, the
black earth and fertilizer pellets coming with the root systems.
Around the area are empty packages of slug and mouse poison, as well
as plant food.

The plants are stacked, bundled and carried back to the ATVs, leaving
nothing but some holes in the ground and a couple of stalks.

Const. Mugford puts his business card in one so whoever comes back for
the plants will know where they've gone.

Just a half hour passes from the time the chopper spots the plants
until they are stuffed into the back of the SUV.

There are no concerns about gathering evidence for charges, because
it's next to impossible to find out who planted the marijuana without
spending days watching for someone to come for the plants. More often
than not, they are planted on Crown land or on someone else's
property, and many people have no idea what has been happening on
their plots.

"A lot of the time you don't have any (plant) source to go to, so it's
difficult to lay charges," Const. Philpott said. Staking out a small
grow-op would take too much time and use too many resources.

"As a rule we find them and pull them," he said. "It takes them off
the street and eliminates at least some of it."

Once the plants are loaded, it's on to the next possible growing
site.

The season is winding down, though, so the finds are going to be fewer
and fewer.

"At this time of year there aren't a lot left," Const. Philpott
said.

"We'll be working more on the indoor operations now, and 'intel' is
coming in all the time."