RCMP SEARCH UPSETS ACCUSED

Damage To Garden, Loss Of Guns Angers Alleged Dope Trafficker

WEYMOUTH MILLS - Digby rural RCMP made quite a haul last Friday when
they dismantled a Weymouth Mills marijuana operation.

Roger J. Hill, 50, was arrested at his home on the Sissiboo Road on
Friday afternoon after waking up from a nap. He went for a ride to the
Digby RCMP detachment along with 38 of his rifles and shotguns while
officers searched his property.

Police seized more than $2,000 in cash found on Mr. Hill and in his
house.

Officers used a search warrant to look over the property. They found
more than four kilograms of marijuana buds, five kilograms of pruned
and packaged marijuana ready for processing, 3.5 kilograms of
marijuana leaves and 18 kilograms of marijuana clippings in the house,
in a shed and on the property.

Three other people were detained at the scene and later
released.

Mr. Hill was charged with possession of more than three kilograms of
marijuana for the purpose of trafficking and was released on a promise
to appear in Digby provincial court on Nov. 15.

Additional drug and firearms charges are pending.

Monday, Mr. Hill stood in his yard and pondered the police
action.

It seemed to him like the Mounties were after things like guns and
roses in addition to marijuana after they dug up some of his flowering
front yard shrubs, he said.

"I was lying down," he recalled about the Friday afternoon
raid.

"I had just got up and I thought I heard something but the water was
running.

"I heard this thump and I said 'Wait a minute.' They hollered 'Police'
and thumped and they kicked the door in."

The RCMP said they had a search warrant.

One officer pulled the starter cord on Mr. Hill's garden tiller and
went to work on his potato patch.

"They tilled all that," he said. "They tilled this one over here. They
tilled my cucumbers under."

Mr. Hill said he had a look at the search warrant and it said police
could search his place for drugs, not pick his potatoes.

"They never asked me if they could use my tiller," he said. "I can't
see the point in that."

Police also dug up his onion beds and checked out his carrots and
parsnips. Then they took a look through the henhouse as well as the
house.

"They took a hundred and some dollars that my young feller had in his
bedroom and they took $800 that (his wife) had saved to fill the oil
barrel and pay the taxes."

Mr. Hill referred to himself as a disabled clam digger who can't work.
But he likes to garden. In addition to growing things, he also likes
to hunt.

That's why he's miffed that his guns were taken. He conceded they were
unregistered but said they were locked and behind closed doors.

"No one who came in the house could see my guns," he said.