HASH OIL BURNS HOME

Parents Cooked Drugs, Not Breakfast For Kids

At a time when many people would be cooking bacon and eggs, a North
End couple spent their Saturday morning making something a little less
traditional. A kitchen fire broke out about 9 a.m. Saturday in a house
at 122 Burrows Ave. as the residents, parents of four young children,
were cooking drugs on the stove.

"These parents, rather than feeding these kids breakfast, are cooking
hash oil on the stove, and that's simply unacceptable," said Const.
Shelly Glover, a spokeswoman for the Winnipeg Police Service.

"There is obviously a concern that these children were placed in grave
danger."

The resin-extraction process caused the kitchen to go up in flames.
The couple rushed their four children, age one to 10, outside and no
one was hurt.

But when the fire department came and put out the blaze, firefighters
discovered a marijuana grow operation in one of the bedrooms.

COUPLE CHARGED

They seized grow equipment and 35 marijuana plants with an estimated
street value of $41,000.

The couple, a 30-year-old woman and a 28-year-old man, face charges of
drug possession and trafficking. They have been released on promises
to appear.

"I figured something not so terrific was going on in that place," said
area resident Larice Sych, who said the couple had lived in the house
at the end of Burrows Avenue along the Red River about a year. "It's a
terrible problem house."

"I saw people going in and out of there all the time," said area
resident Carrie Anderson. "I thought maybe they had lots of relatives
who visited them."

Alvin Crozier, who also lives nearby, said the news that the house was
a grow operation was no shock in a neighbourhood that has its share of
bad seeds.

"Around here it doesn't surprise me, unfortunately," he said. "I'd
like it out of the area completely, but unfortunately I don't think
it's going to change."

The fire was confined to the kitchen, but caused $60,000 in damage.
The marijuana grow operation does not appear to be related to other
grow ops busted recently that were linked to Asian organized crime,
said Glover.