POLICE RESUME RAIDS ON INTERIOR POT GROWERS

Latest Swoop Uncovers Underground Bunker

Police seized 1,300 immature pot plants and $250,000 worth of air
conditioning, electrical and generation equipment when they raided an
underground bunker in a remote area north of Clearwater on Thursday.

The bunker was built from 20 buried shipping containers and held a
sophisticated marijuana growing operation, Kelowna RCMP Const. Heather
Macdonald said.

The steel containers, normally used in ocean shipping, were buried at least
25 centimetres deep in a continuous line. A small shed housed the stairwell
to the buried operations.

The raid is the second this week on remote growing operations in the
Kamloops region.

On Monday, armed with 28 search warrants, police swooped down on the tiny
community of Seymour Arm.

They arrested 16 residents and seized about 20,000 marijuana plants and
related equipment.

RCMP provided few details about the location of Thursday's raid, other than
to say it is located off a logging road.

A man and woman from Kelowna, both 24, were arrested and later released.
They are scheduled to appear in Clearwater provincial court Jan. 31 on
drug-related charges. The pair did not own the property.

Macdonald said RCMP are still investigating the relationship between the
two arrested and the property owner.

"It's unlikely that just two people obtained the containers, buried them
and got the equipment," she said.