GROW OP BUSTED

Uplands residents watched in bewilderment Thursday as a bomb disposal
team assisted in a major drug bust in their quiet, upscale
neighbourhood.

Lethbridge police seized more than 200 marijuana plants, the product
of a sophisticated growing operation set up in the basement of a home
on Ermineview Place North. While executing a search warrant on the
beige, two-storey home, special operations officers found two grenades
and immediately summoned the department's bomb disposal team.

"What we located were two modified grenades with no explosives," said
Staff Sgt. Jim Carriere, head of the organized crime section.

The marijuana has an estimated street value of more than $200,000, he
said.

Neighbours described the residents of the home as a quiet, almost
reclusive couple with two school-aged children. It's believed the
family has lived in the home more than seven years.

"They're very quiet people. We never see them," said neighbour Bryan
Kranzler. "It's a shock. It's the first time we've seen anything like
this in this neighbourhood."

The cul-de-sac was cordoned off for several hours Thursday afternoon
until the bomb disposal team determined the grenades were not
dangerous. Two homes on either side of the house were evacuated and
other residents along the street were warned and given the option to
leave.

Police apprehended a man and a woman who drove by the barricaded
cul-de-sac around mid-afternoon. It wasn't known at press time whether
anyone had been charged in connection with the bust.

Carriere said the operation took up most of the home's basement
area.

Investigators worked well into the night gathering forensic evidence
and dismantling the wiring and equipment of the elaborate operation.

"It doesn't surprise me at all . . . that these things are happening
more often," said Don Lee, a retired Lethbridge police inspector, who
could see events unfold from his living room window.

It was the second major pot-growing uncovered in Uplands in the past
six months. Police seized 189 marijuana plants worth $185,000 late
last December from a home on Cougar Bay North.