CITY POLICE SEIZE 781 PLANTS IN RAID ON LARGE GROW OP

CITY police dismantled one of the largest indoor hydroponic marijuana grow
operations found so far this year when officers seized 781 plants worth
about $875,000 on the street from a Leila Avenue home Monday.

Police spokeswoman Const. Shelly Glover said yesterday drug unit officers
raided a house in the 1200 block of Leila at 1:45 p.m. and began to
dismantle the operation.

Glover said police carted out $15,000 worth of hydroponic growing equipment;
lights and automatic watering trays.

No one was home at the time -- no furniture was visible in the one-storey
house yesterday -- and no one has been arrested. The registered owner, the
same person listed on the search warrant, was unavailable for comment. He
has owned the 24-year-old house for about three years.

Glover said much of the six-room, 1,440-square-foot home near the
intersection of Pipeline Road was used to grow pot.

The raid is the 53rd marijuana grow operation found in Winnipeg this year.
Last year, police found 108. Most have been found in quiet, residential
neighbourhoods in newer homes, most with unfinished basements. RCMP have
also raided a handful of grow houses in the Winnipeg area this year, seizing
about 1,600 plants. As well, more than 1,300 plants have been seized in
raids at homes in rural Manitoba. Mounties have also shut down grows in
Sanford, Beausejour and Stonewall.

In most instances, the growers have circumvented the hydro meter so the high
use of electricity, to power the artificial lighting, goes undetected.

Police believe organized-crime groups are behind much of the large-scale
marijuana cultivation in Manitoba. They also believe much of the pot is
smuggled into the United States, where it more than triples in value.