RCMP FIND 19 GROW-OPS IN 90-UNIT TOWNHOUSE COMPLEX

VANCOUVER -- Dark secrets lurked inside the shiny new townhouses of
Richmond's Cranberry Lane complex.

Triggered by their investigation into a botched home invasion, Richmond
RCMP stumbled upon a apartment complex rife with grow operations, where 19
out of 90 rental units were being used to cultivate pot.

"This is the biggest concentration of grow-ops in one residential area
we've seen," Corporal Peter Thiessen said. "We've seen grow-ops in high
rises, in single-family dwellings and now we're seeing them concentrated in
townhouse complexes."

Police say it is another example of the unstoppable expansion of grow-ops
in every neighbourhood in Greater Vancouver.

Most of the operations had already been dismantled by the renters in the
townhouse complex on Muir Drive after police and the property manager
posted a 24-hour warning that the premises would be entered.

Police found evidence that about one-fifth of the units in the complex were
being used to grow marijuana. Although 12 of the grow-ops had already been
dismantled, police discovered remnants of other operations, with heating
lamps and abandoned holding pots.

Cpl. Thiessen said the 24-hour notice gave operators time to get rid of
their pot, but police could not enter the rental units any sooner.

The pot-growing apartments were spread throughout the complex, with some
next door to each other. The operators had interaction with each other, but
each was independently run.

"We don't believe there was one operation being controlled by a central
mother ship. They knew about each other in some cases," Cpl. Thiessen said
yesterday.

Police learned about the pot-infested complex, which is located in a
residential area of the Vancouver suburb of Richmond, as part of an
investigation into another apartment building.

Three masked gunmen forced their way into an apartment on Sharpe Avenue in
east Richmond on March 10, then realized they had barged into the wrong
residence.

"We've got the wrong place," one of the gunman shouted before apologizing
to the two residents and leaving.

That investigation led police to a non-active grow operation in the
neighbouring apartment unit in the complex, which led to the discovery of
four other grow-ops in the same building. Evidence uncovered at the Sharpe
Avenue building took police to the second complex on Muir Drive where the
19 grow-ops were found.

Police arrested three people and seized about 1,350 plants.

Cpl. Thiessen said criminals who target grow operations have become
increasingly bold and violent. In the two Richmond apartment complexes,
there was evidence criminals had beaten them to some of the units.

Police found forced entry into the electrical rooms in both buildings and
believe that criminals figured out where to locate the marijuana
cultivation based on hydro consumption. The average hydro used in a grow-op
was $50 to $2,000 for a 60-day period, compared with a non-grow-op unit
that averaged $100 for 60 days.

New attention has been focused on the national problem of grow-ops since
the killing of four RCMP officers during a raid on an Alberta farm that had
a small operation. Some MPs are now pushing for minimum sentences for those
convicted of running these operations.

The problem of grow-ops is national in scale, but B.C. leads the country,
accounting for 39 per cent of the marijuana-cultivation incidents reported
to police nationally, according to a recent study by researchers at
University College of the Fraser Valley.

The study -- based on an examination of 25,000 police files in British
Columbia -- also painted a troubling portrait of the typical offender: an
average of seven convictions and 13-year criminal histories; 41 per cent
had convictions for violence and 10 per cent had guns at hand.