STREET VALUE OF GROW-OP MARIJUANA - $1.5 MILLION

Police estimate the street value of plants and dried marijuana found
in the Copper Courts grow-op last week to be around $1.5 million.

RCMP Sgt. Gerry Fiddick says the investigation of the elaborate
factory-like grow-op will continue for a long time.

He suspects the operation has been in business for at least a year,
judging by the approximately 2,500 live plants they found in various
stages of growth and 100 pounds of dried cannabis.

"We don't often find an operation that goes from seed to end product,"
he says.

Village administrator John Desrosiers says the illegal operation "took
us completely by surprise."

Copper Courts can be seen from the Village's Public Works yard.
Desrosiers says the first inkling anyone at the Village had about the
grow-op was after police began their bust on Monday morning. That was
when public works employees dropped by the Village office for coffee
and to spread the news.

Since falling into disuse as a recreational facility over 15 years
ago, the building has had several owners, including the Village of
Ashcroft who acquired it when one of the owners defaulted on their
taxes.

Police say the building is now owned by a "numbered company."

Fiddick says the building's interior was renovated to not only
accommodate growing and drying marijuana, but also for the comfort of
the people watching over the operation.

He says police found hundreds of movies, an expensive TV, pool tables
and the building's indoor swimming pool had been repaired and was
fully operational.

Police are also considering a theft of hydro charge against whomever
is in charge of the operation.

Acting on a tip that marijuana was being grown in the building, police
raided it just before 10 am on Feb. 9, armed with a search warrant and
a police dog. At that time, they took a 32 year old man of no fixed
address into custody without incident.

The man was released on his own Recognizance to appear in Ashcroft
court on charges of Production of Marijuana and Possession for the
Purpose of Trafficking.

Fiddick says grow-ops are moving out of the Lower Mainland, looking
for out of the way places where they can conduct their business
without being noticed.

"I think we'll see more of it, if there already isn't," he says.