COPS WANT HOMES SEIZED

Police are asking the courts to seize newly-built houses used to hide
illegal marijuana grow operations.

Applications have been filed under proceeds of crime laws in B.C. Supreme
Court to have three recently constructed houses in Surrey and Langley
seized and sold to assist law enforcement, Surrey RCMP Const. Tim Shields
confirmed Friday.

The Surrey properties include a large house in the 17700 block of 100 Ave.
valued at almost $485,000, another property on 74A Ave., as well as one
house in Langley. All three houses have been ordered "restrained" by the
courts, meaning they cannot be sold until their fate has been decided at trial.

It's the first time the proceeds of crime laws have been applied to houses,
Shields said. Usually, the law is used on items such as cars, airplanes and
other possessions where there is evidence the property was used
"exclusively to sustain an ongoing criminal enterprise." No trial date for
the Surrey cases has been set as yet.

Under current legislation, if the courts do rule the houses should be
seized, the money from the sale will go to federal authorities, not local
law enforcement, Shields pointed out.

"The City of Surrey is paying for 90 per cent of our policing; why should
they not receive some cost recovery?"

As first reported by The Leader earlier this month, police are worried
about a troubling trend whereby criminals are buying new houses outright
rather than than renting older houses to conceal their pot growing.

So far this year, Surrey RCMP have executed 33 warrants at new houses, 15
of them within a three-block area of 168 St. and 84 Ave.

"We're scratching the surface," Shields warned. "There are many, many, many
more." Investigators say the new tactic aids concealment because most
residents of new neighborhoods don't expect such activity.

One Surrey mother interviewed by The Leader said she had no idea the house
next to hers was being used for pot growing until a police Emergency
Response Team staged a raid one afternoon. Owners go to great pains to
conceal such enterprises, even making periodic visits with their children,
according to another resident, who said after one such house was raided, it
was sold and the new owners reported there were no signs it had ever been
used as a home.

"All the appliances, the stove, fridge, everything, were still wrapped in
plastic," the source said. Most of the new home grow op activity is the
work of "Asian organized crime," Shields said. Police have asked the
Greater Vancouver Home Builders' Association (GVHBA) for assistance in
finding new homes being built for marijuana growing.

Often, growers are including suspicious features in their design requests,
said Peter Simpson, the chief operating officer of the Surrey-based
non-profit organization which represents the residential construction
industry throughout the Greater Vancouver Area.

"High output electrical service in the basement and oversized exhaust fans
in the roof ... these are things that are not illegal but might give cause
for concern," he said.

That doesn't mean contractors will be rushing to police every time an owner
requests out-of-the ordinary features, or that buyers should be timid about
requesting such features, Simpson added. Surrey is hardly the only
community to notice new houses being used to hide pot growing operations,
Simpson added. "This has happened in British Properties (in West Vancouver)
as well..."