GROW OPS FALL LIKE DOMINOES

The Central Okanagan's first RCMP grow-op team has busted 20 marijuana
operations this month, with more searches planned for today and Friday.

The integrated team of 10 officers has seized more than 6,000 marijuana
plants, 32 kilograms of dried marijuana bud and more than $120,000 worth of
growing equipment. Charges are pending against 24 people from Lake Country
to Westbank.

The team, which has RCMP members from the Kelowna detachment, rural detail,
Lake Country office and South East District drug squad, also recovered two
stolen trucks valued at $45,000 to $55,000 each and a snowmobile.

"The objective is to disrupt those engaged in these activities and
significantly change the Okanagan's reputation as a choice location for
it," RCMP spokesman Const. Garth Letcher said Wednesday.

As he spoke, team members dismantled a grow operation in the 1200 block of
Findlay Road in North Rutland.

Inside the single-storey home were 244 plants 30-50 centimetres tall, under
16 shrouded lights. The bright green plants were full of pungent buds,
indicating it was nearly time for harvest.

A two-metre tall canister full of charcoal had tried to keep those odours
from alerting neighbours.

Police had a backlog of tips from Crime Stoppers because the Kelowna drug
squad had been involved in a lengthy undercover operation into the
production and distribution of methamphetamine, said Letcher.

Undercover officers also learned of grow ops during that investigation,
which ended in February.

In some cases, there were two or three busts a day, keeping 10 RCMP members
busy dismantling the equipment and cataloguing evidence. The Kelowna
detachment's squad usually has four or five members.

Wednesday's bust was an example of a grow operation in a residential
neighbourhood which put people who live there at risk, said Letcher.

"More and more, we find the criminal element involved, organized crime to
some extent. Local people act as brokers for the grow op, specifying how
they want it cut and dried."

Those involved "feel compelled" to arm themselves against potential
rip-offs, he added.

Hydro bypasses, to avoid detection by utility companies, increase the
likelihood of fire which can spread to adjacent properties, said Letcher.

Police have kept samples of the marijuana for upcoming court cases and
destroyed the rest, but had to rent a commercial storage facility for the
large quantity of grow equipment, which must be kept until the court cases
have ended.

Letcher admitted "it's difficult to say" what the impact will be on local
supply and demand.

Findlay Road neighbours, who declined to provide their names, said they had
"not a clue" there was a marijuana grow operation at the home.

However, one said there had been a "deluxe, top-of-the-line" grow op there
three years ago, undetected by police.

"We thought everything was normal again after they moved out," she said.