'THE SMELL OF MARIJUANA, PERHAPS?'

Chilliwack RCMP officers tracking a fleeing theft suspect in the dead
of night stumbled upon one of the largest marijuana grow-ops in the
city's history, filling three Fairfield Island chicken barns.

The accidental discovery of the grow-op began when police were called
to a construction site near McSween Road on Fairfield Island early
Friday morning where two men were reportedly stealing construction
materials.

Police nabbed one suspect, but the other took off running and police
dogs were called in to track him down.

"In the process of tracking him, he ran through a bunch of yards and
this farm property," says Const. Steve Hiscoe.

The tracking dogs are also trained to sniff out drugs.

"As they're tracking through this property the dogs are indicating
something's up with that barn ... the smell of marijuana, perhaps."

Const. Hiscoe says police officers did not enter the barn at the time,
but evidence outside the barn "consistent with running a marijuana
grow-op of large scale" was enough to obtain a search warrant, which
was executed the next day.

Police found 6,003 marijuana plants in three chicken barns, one used
for propagation, the second for production and the third for drying
and bagging.

A 42-year-old male and a 50-year-old male were arrested on the
property, but Const. Hiscoe did not know if they are the owners. The
construction site theft suspect whose flight led police to the grow-op
was arrested soon afterwards on a neighbouring property.

"This guy wasn't associated with the barn at all," says Const. Hiscoe.