COKE FOUND IN UBC STUDENTS' HOUSE THE REAL THING

UBC students renting a West Side house that previously housed a marijuana
grow-op are afraid they may be targeted by criminals after they found a
stash of cocaine in their basement.

The students, who live on West 4th Avenue, discovered the bag of cocaine
last week after pulling a panel from a wall in the basement because of a
water leak, said Carlene Robbins, a city staff worker who liaises with the
Vancouver police's drug squad.

"They pulled [the board] off and a big bag of cocaine came flopping down,"
said Robbins, the city's manager of bylaw administration. "They phoned me
and said 'Oh my God, what do we do? We think it's drugs, we're not sure.'"

Robbins said the students contacted her because they knew her connection to
Growbusters, a team of police, firefighters, city inspectors and hydro
workers who bust marijuana grow-ops.

Robbins contacted police, who seized the cocaine and continue to
investigate. She wouldn't reveal the address of the house and didn't know
the quantity of cocaine involved-only that it was a large amount, according
to police.

Sgt. Tom Cork of the drug squad said the investigation was handled by the
patrol division and he has yet to hear back if they've discovered any more
drugs. He didn't know the quantity of the cocaine.

The students, she said, are worried the drugs' owner might return for the
bag or any other drugs still concealed in the house.

Recently, the Lower Mainland has seen a rash of "grow rips"-armed criminals
ripping off marijuana grow-ops-where innocent victims have been targeted.

In several cases, the "grow rippers" have targeted the wrong house, or
broken into a former grow-op that's since been occupied by new tenants.

Currently, no law requires landlords to inform tenants that a house was
previously used as a grow-op.

Police discovered a marijuana growing operation at the West 4th house about
a year ago, but the tenants never returned after the bust. The landlord was
later given approval by the city to lease the house again, and rented it to
the students, Robbins said.

"We haven't had a problem with the house since we approved a re-occupancy
permit," she said. "I would just assume the cocaine was left over from when
it was a grow-op because quite often when there's marijuana, there's other
drugs in the house."

Last week, the RCMP's Assistant Commissioner in B.C., Gary Bass, told a
conference on organized crime that B.C. marijuana is regularly smuggled to
the United States and traded for cocaine.

The price fetched by B.C. bud ranges from $2,500 to $3,200 a pound-double
that in some southern U.S. markets, police told the Courier.

Bass said B.C. marijuana profits are conservatively estimated to be about
$6 billion a year, making it the third largest industry in B.C. after
fishing and forestry.

Evidence of the magnitude of cross-border drug exchanges was revealed last
November, when a joint Canadian-U.S. drug bust resulted in the arrest of 14
people-10 in Canada and four in the U.S.-and the seizure of hundreds of
thousands of dollars in cash, guns, ammunition, cocaine, marijuana, boats
and a Cessna plane.

The investigation stemmed from the bust of a grow-op in Maple Ridge last
February.