CHARGES LAID IN MURDER, LINKED TO POT GROW RIP

Two suspects who allegedly killed a Surrey man during an apparent
marijuana grow operation "rip" in Coquitlam last year made their first
court appearance Dec. 16.

Manh Tuan Doan, 22, of Maple Ridge, and Huy Quoc Do, 49, of Vancouver,
are each charged with the manslaughter and kidnapping of 25-year-old
Tuong (Tommy) Buu Vo of Surrey on Nov. 18, 2003.

Vo's body was found by an area resident in a house in the 1500-block
of Manzanita Court on Westwood Plateau.

Two nearby homes, on Erskine Street and Salal Crescent, also were
being investigated at the time of the homicide.

"There were indications of grow ops in a couple of those locations and
evidence leads us to believe that this was, in fact, the result of a
grow operation rip-off that went wrong," Coquitlam RCMP Cpl. Jane
Baptista told a news conference in August.

Baptista said the killing "was most likely not a random thing," adding
Vo was known to police.

"Whenever you have drugs involved," she said, "and we do know this was
probably related to this attempted marijuana grow operation rip-off,
it's often linked to an organized criminal gang."

The arrests of Doan and Do come after a 13-month-long investigation by
the RCMP's Integrated Homicide Investigative Team and Coquitlam's
Major Crime Unit.