LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES TEAM UP TO FIGHT GROW OPS

A new joint-forces team will provide Mounties in rural and small-town
southern Alberta with much-needed help to combat marijuana grow operations.

Announced earlier this week by the RCMP, Calgary police and the Criminal
Intelligence Service Alberta, the Southern Alberta Marijuana Investigative
Team (SAMIT) will focus on shutting down grow operations in Calgary as well
as RCMP jurisdictions throughout southern Alberta.

The team will be available to assist small rural detachments which often
lack the capacity to conduct such larger-scale investigations, says Insp.
Ian Cameron, CISA director.

The team's investigative approach will be intelligence-driven, he said, in
tackling grow operations, which aren't just a big-city problem.

"It's a burgeoning business. It's a significant amount of crime groups
involved in growing marijuana for profit," says Cameron. "With the number
of grow operations, take-downs and (drug) seizures (each year), we're
talking many millions of dollars."

SAMIT is fashioned after a similar joint-forces team established for
Edmonton and northern Alberta a couple of years ago.

He says SAMIT will also be available to assist Lethbridge police with
investigating marijuana grow operations should the need arise.