HUGH DRUG BUST NEAR BERRYMOOR

Cops are crediting good old-fashioned luck for one of the biggest drug busts
the Drayton Valley area has seen in years.

Members of the Drayton Valley RCMP visited a house east of Berrymoor
Sunday morning looking for information on a man found semi-conscious
in a nearby field.

What they discovered was a marijuana growing operation with more than
$600,000 of assets and product on site.

"Finding the drugs was totally unexpected. We were going through
procedure after the young man was found out here and came across this.
It's the biggest operation we've uncovered in recent years," said
Staff Sgt. Steve Harrington.

Officers smelled marijuana upon calling at the small house, located on
RR 55 just south of Twp. Rd. 500, at around 11 a.m.

"There was a locked Quonset and they could hear the generator," said
Harrington. "They checked the guy's record and he had a long history
so they put it all together."

Cops returned to the house with a search warrant at around 6:45
p.m.

A search of the house and outbuildings uncovered about 50 lbs. of
finished product with a street value of around $100,000, as well as
about 475 plants worth around $475,000.

Also found on site were lighting, ventilation and power generation
equipment worth more than $50,000 in total.

Corp. Lorne Adamitz of the RCMP's K Division drug unit says there was
ample evidence of a sophisticated growing operation in the main
outbuilding.

He estimates the annual turnover of an operation this size to be more
than $3 million. Plants can be grown to maturity in about eight weeks.

"There were prefabricated rooms for plants in different levels of
development," he said.

The semi-conscious man is believed to have been in the area since last
summer. Adamitz said it looked like the operation had been running for
some time.

He also noted that the power generator and ventilation systems were
muffled to avoid detection.

However, all the sophisticated equipment in the world couldn't prevent
police from detecting something amiss once they called at the
residence Sunday morning. RCMP were first called to the scene around
9:30 a.m. when a man was reportedly found semi-conscious in the
adjacent field.

The man apparently got lost early Sunday morning while walking through
the woods on his way home from a function at Lindale Hall. Police say
he was last seen between 3-3:30 a.m. and was ill-equipped for such a
trek in this weather.

"We backtracked his steps about 300 yards and you could see where he
had sat down at one point. He just lost his way," said Const. Rick
Bidaisee.

Suspect in intensive care

A neighbour was returning a snowmobile Sunday morning when he came
across the man, who was found shoeless on one foot and suffering from
severe exposure.

He was airlifted by STARS to Edmonton, where he was in serious
condition in the Intensive Care Unit at the University of Alberta
Hospital as of Monday morning.

RCMP would not release a name and only described the man as 24 years
old and originally from Edmonton.

Harrington says a name cannot be released until charges are
filed.

"He's probably facing a number of charges but we'll wait and see how
he does. If he survives we'll link him to the residence and go from
there," he said.

Charges are likely to include production of a controlled substance and
possession for the purpose of trafficking.

RCMP are also looking to arrest a second Edmonton area man in
connection with the drug operation.

About 10 officers, including personnel from Edson and Edmonton, spent
most of the evening cataloguing and transporting evidence found in the
outbuilding and the house.

"Somebody has definitely been living here but it's sparingly
furnished. It's more like a flophouse," said Adamitz.