FIRE LEADS POLICE TO MASSIVE MARIJUANA SEIZURE

FIREFIGHTERS, called to put out a fire in the roof of a waterfront
Island Lakes house on Wednesday, stumbled upon one of the largest
indoor marijuana grow operations ever discovered in the city.

And now city police say Winnipeggers should get used to seeing these
high-tech hydroponic grows in their neighbourhoods because Canada's
laws against marijuana growers are just too soft.

The fire broke out at about 5:30 p.m. in the roof of 79 Desjardins
Dr., a one-storey home that backs onto the neighbourhood's retention
pond.

Firefighters found the 1,702-square-foot house had been recently
converted to grow high-grade marijuana. Police were called and, by
midnight, had counted 723 plants in various states of growth worth
more than $1.2 million on the street.

Winnipeg Police Service drug unit Staff Sgt. Danny Smyth said as the
fire trucks pulled up, three men were seen running away from the
house. No arrests have been made, although investigators believe the
house may have been connected to an Asian-based organized crime group.
It did not appear anyone lived there.

Police say the house was recently sold and they were attempting to
track down the new owner. The former owner was unavailable. The fire
started when an electrical wire overheated because of the heavy power
draw by the hydroponic lighting equipment.

The house is one of about a half-dozen upscale houses uncovered this
year in Winnipeg that were being used to grow marijuana.

City police and RCMP have so far shut down 87 grow houses in the
Winnipeg area in 2003, five more than in all of 2002.

More tellingly, city police drug seizure statistics show that in 2002,
officers seized 6,999 marijuana plants with an estimated street value
of more than $11 million. In 2001, officers only found 3,856 plants.
In 2000, they found 2,864 plants.

Despite the dramatic increase, Smyth said Winnipeg is just catching up
to what's happening in the rest of Canada.

Smyth said Asian gangs and the Hells Angels are believed to be behind
many of the local indoor grow operations. Much of the marijuana is
consumed locally, but there is mounting intelligence suggesting a lot
of it is being exported into Wisconsin and Minnesota. "The risk and
the reward are more favourable to do one of these 'ops' in Canada than
the United States," Smyth said yesterday.

He noted that U.S. courts send people to jail for long periods if
they're caught. In Canada, many growers get off with conditional
sentences or short jail terms.

Most of the large-scale grow operations found in Winnipeg are set up
in private or rented residential homes in quiet neighbourhoods. All
were similar in setup -- the hydro meter had been circumvented to
avoid detection because the house used a large amount of heat and
light in the grow operation.