GANGS LINKED TO GROW OPS

Major Raid On Vietnamese Criminal Group Based On 2001 Ottawa Cop Probe

AS REPORTED by the Sun in February, it's no secret to police on both sides
of the Ottawa River that sophisticated and well-organized marijuana grow
ops are often controlled by Vietnamese gangs. A major raid yesterday on an
international Vietnamese criminal organization linked to money laundering
and clandestine marijuana and ecstasy production was based on information
gleaned by Ottawa police during investigations into local grow ops in 2001.

VALUABLE INFO

"Some of the grow ops that we have done in the past year or so were linked
to that organization," said Ottawa police drug section Staff Sgt. Marc
Pinault. "We learned of them directly from this investigation."

The majority of local grow operations are run either by Asian organized
crime or biker gangs, he said.

However, even after the massive raid yesterday in Ottawa, police suspect
there are hundreds of other grow ops in the city linked to Asian crime groups.

"There are certainly other groups, other cells involved," said Pinault.

Sgt. Mike Laviolette of the Criminal Intelligence Service of Canada told
the Sun in February that Vietnamese-based organized crime locally and
across the country has "thrived" with marijuana grow ops for the past two
years.

"We have seen a large influx nationally of Vietnamese Australians coming in
from Australia to crop-sit here in Canada," he said. "It's a large
international network."

Yesterday's sweeping raid will send a message to other criminal
organizations involved in drug production that they are not immune, said
Pinault.

CROOKS 'ADJUST'

However, police don't expect the crooks to make it easy on them.

"They change how they operate every time law enforcement takes an action,"
said Pinault. "Unfortunately, how the courts are set up we have to reveal
how we have done our investigation, so they adjust to that."