POLICE BUST MARIJUANA FACTORY

Landlords Get Warning About Grow Operations

CITY police suggest people renting out a house ensure it hasn't been
turned into a clandestine marijuana grow operation.

Police also say this is particularly important if landlords haven't
been to their houses in months and have accepted rent payments in cash.

Police spokeswoman Const. Shelly Glover said the warning comes as
police found yet another marijuana factory in a home in the 200-block
of Harbison Avenue in East Kildonan early Monday.

Police seized more than 300 plants worth about $336,000 if it was sold
on the street. A 24-year-old man is facing cultivation and trafficking
charges.

Drug unit Sgt. Danny Smyth said it's the first big seizure of the
year. Last year, police took apart 108 marijuana grow operations in
the city. In 2002, they found 82.

"It's in every neighbourhood and it's not going away," Smyth said. "It
also taxes our resources. I've got one crew tied up taking it apart
and another crew processing all the evidence. "At the end of the day
the person charged will likely get a conditional sentence."

Glover said the high humidity from a grow operation rots the house
from the inside out, often damaging it beyond repair.

Also, she said because the damage was caused by a criminal act,
insurance won't cover the cost to fix it.

A co-owner of the Harbison Avenue home said yesterday the property has
been rented out for about a year and that she had no idea of what it
was being used for.

Glover said the grow was uncovered by fluke -- patrolling police
noticed three males breaking into the house, two going in through a
basement window and the third acting as lookout. Once inside the
house, the two adult males cut down about 20 plants and stuffed them
into bags.

Within minutes police had arrested them.

They face break-in and possession of marijuana related charges. The
look-out had fled.

With the arrests, police got a search warrant and found a large
marijuana grow operation in the basement of the 560 square-foot
one-storey house.

It's believed no one was living in the house because there was little
furniture, no food and no clothing.

The 24-year-old male renter is facing charges of growing marijuana,
possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking and theft of
electricity (the hydro meter had been circumvented to avoid detection
through excess power use). He was released on a promise to appear and
his name was not released.

Smyth said some growers will use several houses so that if one is
discovered, they're still in business. Larger growers are believed to
be backed by Asian-based organized crime groups or the Hells Angels.

Marijuana grows are being discovered across the country, the largest
one found last week in an old brewery near Barrie, Ont.

Winnipeg police have a feature on their website
http://www.city.winnipeg.mb.ca/police/
) explaining how to recognize indoor marijuana grow operations and
other clandestine labs, where methamphetamines, ecstasy, GHB, and
other chemically derived drugs are made.