'HIRED FARMERS' BROUGHT HERE TO RUN POT OPERATIONS

There's a new trend in the marijuana-growing business in Waterloo Region --
ethnic Vietnamese are being brought here from other countries to run pot
gardens, said a local Crown prosecutor.

Pat Flynn, a federal prosecutor who handles drug cases, said yesterday he's
seen people from Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and England involved in
local grow operations. They come in on visitors' visas, he said.

"They're obviously here as hired farmers," Flynn said in an interview.
"Whoever is hiring them is using them until they get caught."

This week, an Australian citizen, in Canada on a visa, was sentenced to 10
months in jail for producing marijuana at an Elmira-area home where last
fall police found 611 plants valued at $600,000.

Xuan Sinh Hoang had rigged an illegal bypass of the home's hydro meter.

Hoang, a man in his 50s, will likely be deported after he serves his jail
term, said Justin Heimpel, the prosecutor who handled the case.

"People are coming over from different countries. That's a pattern that's
starting to grow now," Heimpel said in an interview.

Today, another man, here illegally from Australia, is expected to appear in
court on marijuana-growing charges. Police found Van Hau Do operating a pot
farm on The Greenway in Cambridge.

It's all further evidence of the organized nature of these marijuana
operations, Flynn says.

"Think about it," he said. "Who would have the power to hire people from
Australia to come here? It must have far-reaching enterprises in an
organized structure of some kind."

BAIL POSTED

He said these residents of other countries, who claim they know no one in
Canada, are being provided with sureties in bail court -- people post bail
for them.

"There are people here to bail them out," Flynn said.

He also knows of cases where the same people who post bail for someone in
Waterloo Region have gone to other cities to do the same thing for accused
people there.

Flynn thinks foreigners may be used because there's an expectation they'll
just be deported when caught, and not sent to jail. But he's going to
insist on jail in every case he sees.

"We're not going to deport people until they go to jail. Why would we allow
them to have a Canadian marijuana vacation?"

ON NEWSSTANDS SATURDAY

The roots of Waterloo Region's explosion in marijuana homegrowing stretch
all the way to British Columbia. In Saturday's Perspectives section, The
Record goes west for a look at how B.C. authorities tackle the problem.