THE GREEN TEAM WAS ON THE CASE

Edmonton is more than 300 kilometres down the highway from Valleyview,
but for drug peddlers it's only a short trip from a rural grow
operation there to the city streets, say Edmonton police.

Which is why a special squad of big city detectives joined forces with
the Valleyview RCMP to crack a $5 million marijuana grow operation
last week - the largest catch in years for both the RCMP and Edmonton
city police.

"What we find with a lot of these marijuana grow operators is that
they try to find these isolated areas with lots of space where they
can ward off suspicious neighbours," said Dean Parthenis, spokesman
for Edmonton Police Services.

"This one was big. I don't think we've had one that large before in
years. Five million is just massive."

Edmonton's so-called Green Team has been sent to towns and cities
throughout Alberta to work with RCMP, said Parthenis, but last week's
case in Valleyview was a show-stopper, topping a recent $1 million
marijuana joint-operation in Drayton Valley.

Parthenis said marijuana cultivators exploit remote rural locations to
grow their crop, which is then harvested, packaged, and shipped off to
larger centres such as Edmonton for sale. By teaming with RCMP, city
police can try to stem the flow of drugs at the source.

"Once it's packaged it quickly hits the streets of the big city, where
it may eventually find its way into the hands of youngsters and
teenagers," he said. "If investigators can nip these operations in the
bud in the originating areas it will prevent it from ever getting into
our city."

Detectives arrived in Valleyview well in advance of the Friday arrest,
he said, lending Mounties their expertise in dealing with drug crimes.

Members of the Green Team are experts in handling drugs, testifying on
drug-related matters in court, and tracking grow operations.

The actual official drug charges laid against the suspected owner of
the grow operation were filed by officers from the Edmonton Police
Force, rather than Valleyview RCMP, said Parthenis.

"We would like to see more of this, with the RCMP and Edmonton Police
Services working together to break up these grow operations."