VIOLENT MEANS TO PROTECT CROPS

Growing dope has become a multi-million dollar business, so big and
lucrative that growers will go to extraordinary measures to protect their
crops.

And these measures are designed to kill, maim or injure anyone who enters a
marijuana grow operation without authorization.

Langley Township is dotted with residential homes, both upscale and
rundown, self-owned or rented, and warehouses, mushroom barns and other
farm buildings that are used for the illegal production of marijuana.

As Langley RCMP's Drug Squad has discovered, many have been booby trapped
to deter unauthorized access by rival growers and gangs who want to rip off
the production.

To date, the more dangerous booby traps have been discovered elsewhere in
Canada.

"We believe the vast majority are placed to deter marijuana thieves, as
opposed to law officers," an undercover drug officer said in an interview.

One of the most common is a technique that electrifies water. A supply of
water used in marijuana cultivation is hooked up in such a way that an
unsuspecting intruder is electrocuted when he touches grow equipment
unseeingly connected to the water.

Other traps police in Canada have seen include:

* large sheets of plywood pierced by nails and concealed in tall grass that
surrounds a grow-op building;

* a mechanism, triggered by the opening of a door, that releases toxic
chemicals, often causing an explosion;

* a power paint sprayer, filled with a toxic chemical, is hooked up to a
motion sensor. When someone enters the grow op, the sensor is activated,
triggering the sprayer to spew the chemical;

* a small, invisible thread drawn across a room. When it is tripped, it
triggers the firing of a weapon rigged to the thread.

"We haven't seen the violent ones in Langley," the drug officer said. "They
have been documented more in Eastern Canada. Ontario and Quebec appear to
be leading the way in booby traps."

To avoid both detection from electrical bills that could raise suspicion,
and paying for the extra electricity a grow-op requires, pot growers often
hire someone with expertise to bypass the main electrical connection to
their grow up building.

"They tap into these high voltage lines before they reach the meter, and
run the wires into the grow-op. This electricity is not metered, so it's
free," the officer said.

It's a dangerous job that has killed more than one amateur. And the danger
is magnified when electrical wires connections are wrapped with rope and
rubber ties.

"The bottom line is that electrocutions do happen," he said.