POLICE SEIZE HOUSES USED IN MARIJUANA OPERATIONS

For the first time in Waterloo Region, police are trying to take away
houses used for large-scale marijuana-growing operations.

Yesterday, police announced they had seized six houses and two cars valued
at about $1.25 million as part of a joint RCMP-Waterloo regional police
investigation into the proceeds of crime from pot-grows.

Of the six houses, two are in Kitchener and one is in Waterloo. The others
are in Guelph, Mississauga and Brampton.

A 1997 Honda Prelude was seized from a Kitchener owner.

Charges of possession over $5,000 from the proceeds of crime are expected
to be laid against the owners of the six houses in about three weeks, said
Insp. Kevin Harrison of the RCMP's integrated proceeds-of-crime unit in London.

If an owner is found guilty, the house is sold on the open market and the
money goes into Revenue Canada coffers, Harrison said.

In addition to the loss of the house, owners could face hefty court-imposed
fines, he said.

"Any time we can inflict a bigger loss, the more impact (there is) on the
organization.

"They need cash to operate. The idea is to take away as much from them as
you can to decapitate them."

Staff Sgt. Ray Massicotte, head of the Waterloo regional police drug squad,
said he hopes the additional penalty of possession of the proceeds of crime
will act as a deterrent for dope farmers.

"We need to take the profit out of the crime. Proceeds of crime (charge)
goes a long way in doing that," he said.

The six houses are owned by members of the Tran family.

Ba Thuan Tran, 55, faces charges of growing pot at 78 Lewis Cres. in
Kitchener. Tran, who was busted locally in June, was convicted on similar
charges in British Columbia about two years ago.

A B.C. judge gave him a six-month sentence of house arrest and allowed him
to serve it in Kitchener, where he had relatives.

Tran and members of his family, including his son, daughter and son-in-law,
were among 22 people busted in June as part of a six-month police sting
dubbed Project Greenhouse. In the early-morning raids, 17 houses in
Kitchener, Waterloo, Guelph and the Toronto area were found to be stealing
hydro to grow marijuana plants.

Investigating the proceeds of crime has become easier for police since the
recent passage of the federal Bill C-24.

Harrison said that before those legislative changes, police would take
months -- up to eight in Project Greenhouse -- to prove a marijuana grow
house was "significantly modified" by the dope operation.

The complicated process involved estimates from insurance companies, quotes
from banks on mortgages and opinions of hydro officials. At times, advice
from structural engineers looking at the house with the dope needed to be
taken into consideration, said Harrison.

The changes now mean police must only show evidence that the pot house was
"significantly used."

In other words, proof must be shown that a house was used strictly to
cultivate pot. An example would be when police raid a house and find only a
cot, some beer in the fridge, maybe a TV and a basement full of pot, he said.

Harrison said the courts may be reluctant to take away a house that has a
family with children living in it.

He said he expects a boom in the number of houses seized.

Massicotte said the legislative changes will "open the door for this
(proceeds of crime investigation) to be done in practice in the future."