PEEL POLICE BELIEVE THEY HIT THE JACK'POT'

Major Bust May Help Reduce Hydroponic Labs

Police set up and ran their own home-based pot lab as part of a sting that
saw four Mississauga business operators charged with drug-related offences.

Project Potluck targetted hydroponics stores that investigators say were a
one-stop shop for anyone interested in setting up one of the illegal
marijuana-growing labs.

Police Acting Supt. John Nielsen alleged that, for a consultation fee,
store operators were asked out to a residence. Police claim they were
walked through the process of setting up a marijuana lab and, once the
finished product was harvested, the store would purchase back the pot and
distribute it.

The residential labs have been plaguing GTA-area neighbhourhoods for the
past two years. Peel police shut down 80 in Brampton and 72 in Mississauga
last year and have raided another 50 so far this year.

Wednesday's wrap-up of a 10-month, undercover investigation is expected to
make a sizable dent in the creation of new labs, police said. Nielsen said
officers believe some of the 200 Brampton and Mississauga labs already
dismantled had been set up through the four stores, but he couldn't say how
many.

"I think, at the end of the day, we have made an impact," Nielsen said of
the police efforts to run the marijuana labs out of the region.

Twenty people were charged.

During the sting operation, an undercover Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)
officer from the United States posed as a customer.

Police allege he purchased hydroponics equipment and seedling marijuana
plants for $7 a plant from All Seasons Hydroponics in Mississauga. Police
say employees of the store went to a house officers had obtained and, for a
flat fee of approximately $2,500, they set up the home to accommodate a
drug lab, rewiring the electricity and creating a separate ventilation system.

"Any question we had with respect to our operation, they were prepared to
answer and, for a fee, they were willing to assist," Nielsen said.

Three other Mississauga stores--Sunlight Hydroponics, Easy Grow Hydroponics
and Vitamax Gardens--were also investigated and owners and employees of
those stores are accused of offering the same service.

"These are all legitimate businesses, in a sense," Nielsen said. "They are
all hydroponics stores."

A DEA officer was used to ensure he would not be recognized, Nielsen said.

"It (using the DEA) was convenient and it fit into the cover story that we
put together to set up this operation," he said.

Nielsen said the police-run lab had to be fully operational to gain the
trust of the suspects, but he wouldn't go into details about where the
house was located or how police obtained the house.

Peel police worked with the DEA, the OPP and the RCMP in the investigation.

More than 100 officers from GTA-area forces began at 4 a.m. Wednesday,
raiding the stores and five homes that had been set up to grow marijuana.
Four homes were located in Mississauga, the fifth was on Hickory Bush Ave.
in Brampton.

During the raids, police seized 4,000 marijuana plants and 388 pounds of
harvested pot worth close to $8 million on the street.

A key part of the investigation was the seizure of two of the Mississauga
homes, commercial properties and eight cars and SUVs, worth a total of $1.7
million. They also seized $230,000 in Canadian cash and $71,000 in U.S. funds.

"We have to take the profit out of this business," Nielsen said, noting
that police will seize all assets they can tie to drug labs and their
operators.

He said the violence associated with the homes concerns police. Two murders
in York Region are tied to marijuana houses, and in Peel there have been
eight fires, two home-invasion style robberies, and a carbon monoxide leak
in residential marijuana labs.

Two Brampton residents-- Kim Yang, 45, and Anne Yang, 19-- were charged
Wednesday with producing a controlled substance and possession of a drug
for the purpose of trafficking in relation to the Hickory Bush house.

Others charged are: Mississauga residents Tuan Huynh, 44, Hong Son Pham,
29, Hong Quang Pham, 19, Xuan Tran-Vu, 50, Ha Cao Tran, 33, Ha Thu Tran,
29, Tan Nguyen, 32, Hoa Chau, 34, Vuong Tran, 34, Thy Vo, 30, Toronto
residents Chien Li, 28, Thoi-Cuong Mac, 36, Mai Trinh-Ngo, 37, Trung Trinh,
42, Thu Nguyen, 23, Anh Nguyen, 25, Long Dao, 26, and a 17-year-old.

There are telltale signs a residential drug lab is operating in a
neigbhourhood, including:

* it appears no one is ever at home;

* those renting the house come by for only short periods of time, each day,
usually driving directly into a garage and shutting the door;

* the windows are never open;

* the air conditioning is never running;

* there is a strange, "skunky" odour coming from the house;

* the windows are always boarded up or covered;

* there is never any natural light coming from the upper or basement levels;

* it looks like the ground around the hydro meter has been excavated or
tampered with;

* yard work is never done;

* during the winter, snow build-up evident on other homes will not happen
on hydro lab houses because of the warm air being vented through the attic;

* large amounts of condensation on the windows;

* lights are on timers and come on and turn off at previously-set times.

Anyone who suspects a hydroponics drug lab operating on their street should
call Peel police, Morality Bureau, at 905-453-3311, ext. 7260, or Peel
Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-TIPS (222-8477).