GROW OPS BOOMING

As many as 4,500 indoor marijuana grow operations are raking in at least $2
billion a year in Surrey, most of them operating in new homes, a
just-completed study by the Surrey RCMP drug section suggests.

Based on files under investigation and public complaints, the report
estimates there are 3,500 to 4,500 indoor grow ops within city limits at
any given time, 90 per cent of them operated by Vietnamese organized crime
gangs, which favour the use of new houses to conceal their operations.

"The typical profile is $325,000 to $400,000 for the home, if lived in by
the cultivator, with usually an average of 400 plants in the house," RCMP
Const. Tim Shields said Tuesday.

Grows ops have been found in Surrey homes worth as much as $700,000,
Shields added.

While the study doesn't provide a total value of the Surrey pot trade, a
conservative estimate of the cash value of the crops ($500,000 to $1
million a year depending on the grow op) suggests Surrey pot growers are
making at least $2.6 billion a year - a figure Shields doesn't dispute.

Local police are struggling to keep up with the pot grow op explosion,
raiding less than 10 per cent.

Virtually all of the 300 search warrants the Mounties executed in the last
one-year period were at new residences, an indication criminals have come
to prefer the purchase of new houses as a handy way of laundering the money
they make.

"We know that in some cases, some houses have literally have been purchased
with garbage bags full of cash," Shields said. "They wont even dicker on
the price - they'll harvest three or four times, then sell (the house) at a
significantly reduced rate so it moves quickly and then they have
legitimate money."

Police believe some unscrupulous realtors and home builders are conspiring
with pot growers to construct new houses specifically designed to
accommodate grows ops.

"Why else would someone want heavy-duty wiring and ventilation," said Shields.

Pot is also being swapped for other drugs and weapons, police say - as in
the case of three men caught sneaking across the Canada-U.S. border into
South Surrey with guns, cash and jewels two weeks ago.

Dressed in full camouflage, the men were packing 41 handguns, nearly
$100,000 US and a handful of diamonds.

"We believe that was connected to the marijuana trade," Shields said.

While the drug itself may not be significantly harmful, the criminal
activity around indoor marijuana grows poses a substantial risk to public
safety, Sheilds warned.

People are buying new homes, unaware their residence was used for criminal
purposes - and that some crooks may not be aware the grow ops are not
longer operating. In fact, police believe a number of home invasions and
drive-by shootings in newer neighbourhoods involved that sort of error on
the part of the attackers.

The level of criminal activity associated with grow ops has risen
"exponentially," Shields commented.