POLICE MAKE RECORD POT BUST

Grow OPs Worth $2.4M Linked To Asian Gangs

Winnipeg police have shut down two massive marijuana grow operations
- -- setting a record for the largest pot seizure this year in the
process. Police said yesterday both operations appear to be the work
of Asian gangs. On Wednesday, police executed a search warrant at a
home at 75 Countryside Way in North Kildonan. Inside, police found
1,459 pot plants with an estimated street value of more than
$1,634,000. They also recovered more than $10,000 worth of growing
equipment.

"That's a huge grow operation," said Const. Shelly Glover of the
Winnipeg Police Service. "It's amazing how people can convert an
entire home in a more prominent area of the city into a major grow
operation."

A 27-year-old man was arrested and charged with producing and
processing marijuana for the purpose of trafficking.

He was released on a promise to appear in court at a later
date.

It was the largest marijuana grow operation seizure in the city this
year.

The day after that massive bust, police executed another search
warrant at 1 Gonville Place in Fort Richmond. There, police found 650
marijuana plants with an estimated street value of $728,000 and
$15,000 worth of growing equipment.

Two men were arrested at the scene and charged with drug
offences.

Phat Von Hoang, 45, of Winnipeg, was charged with producing and
possessing marijuana for the purpose of trafficking and theft of hydro.

The second unidentified man, 61, was released on a promise to appear
in court at a later date.

In both cases, Glover said, police believe the operations were being
managed by Asian gangs in the city.

None of the men arrested resided at the homes, which appear to have
been used for nothing more than the grow operations. For months, city
police and RCMP have been dealing with an explosion in large-scale
hydroponic marijuana grow operations connected to an Asian-based
organized crime network that extends across the country and around the
world.

In the first six months of this year, more than 70 large indoor grow
operations have been found in Manitoba, a sign the group appears to be
well-organized in buying and financing newer residential homes and
quickly converting them into clandestine grow houses.

Winnipeg Police Chief Jack Ewatski has said the rise in grow houses
allegedly backed by Asian crime is putting a strain on police
resources, as they now have to catch up to identify ringleaders and
how entrenched they are in Winnipeg and other Canadian cities.

The RCMP, a city police Asian-organized-crime unit and Immigration
Canada officials are trying to piece together how the group is
interconnected and how some arrived in Canada.

To date, more than a dozen people -- all claiming to have a Vietnamese
background -- have been arrested by RCMP and city police in connection
with the spread of sophisticated marijuana-growing operations.

Police have said they believe the pot being grown in these operations
is being grown not for local consumers, but to be smuggled into the
United States.

There have been several huge busts in the city this
year.

In early February, police discovered 520 marijuana plants with an
estimated street value of $873,000 at a Vineland Crescent home in
Whyte Ridge.

Just a few weeks later, 668 plants with a street value of more than $1
million were found at a home on Eaglemere Drive in North Kildonan. And
in March, 500 plants with a potential value of $800,000 were found at
a home on Tilstone Bay in south St. Vital.

Dozens more have been uncovered in upscale neighbourhoods in all
corners of the city this year.

In 2003, police busted 108 grow operations, roughly one every three or
four days, worth a combined estimated street value of almost $12 million.