News (Media Awareness Project) - CN ON: Marijuana Bust Nets 800 Plants |
| Title: | CN ON: Marijuana Bust Nets 800 Plants |
| Published On: | 2002-01-23 |
| Source: | Kitchener-Waterloo Record (CN ON) |
| Fetched On: | 2008-01-24 23:15:42 |
MARIJUANA BUST NETS 800 PLANTS
CAMBRIDGE -- The raid of a marijuana home-grow operation in an upscale
Cambridge neighbourhood yesterday is among the largest regional police have
found to date.
More than 800 plants, which they estimate to be worth an estimated
$500,000, were seized, including about 520 that were ready for harvest. A
46-year-old woman was arrested in the morning bust.
Waterloo regional police entered 25 Anglerock Dr., off Burnett Avenue in
north Galt, under the cover of pre-dawn darkness using a
theft-of-electricity warrant.
While investigators were searching the basement, a light fixture shorted
out and started smoking as a result of the tangle of crude wiring used to
bypass the electrical meter to avoid detection.
Some grow-houses draw 10 times the amount of electricity of normal houses.
Hydro officials monitor consumption in co-operation with police.
A hydro worker, who accompanied police into the home yesterday,
disconnected the fixture but not before flames charred the rafters.
Fire is just one of many hazards associated with home-grows that emergency
personnel and innocent neighbours face. Two pot houses in Cambridge and
Kitchener have been gutted by fire in the past two years.
"It's a dangerous practice for many reasons," said Staff Sgt. Ray
Massicotte, head of the Waterloo regional police drug squad.
Yesterday's grow operation was similar to the 70 that regional police have
shut down since June 2000. Holes were punched into the foundation of the
brown-brick, two-storey home, which still had Christmas lights strung
outside. A tangle of electrical wires were strung about the basement joists
overhead.
The lower level of the home had been converted into a hydroponic garden
with vats of chemical pesticides and fertilizers, huge heat lamps and
reflectors. An upstairs bedroom served as a drying room for mature plants.
In this case it appears the unidentified Vietnamese woman arrested in
yesterday's raid lived in the residence. In others, the houses are
dressed-up to look lived in to hide the criminal activity happening inside.
Massicotte said the people operating the local grows are part of an
organized crime cell growing dope for profit.
CAMBRIDGE -- The raid of a marijuana home-grow operation in an upscale
Cambridge neighbourhood yesterday is among the largest regional police have
found to date.
More than 800 plants, which they estimate to be worth an estimated
$500,000, were seized, including about 520 that were ready for harvest. A
46-year-old woman was arrested in the morning bust.
Waterloo regional police entered 25 Anglerock Dr., off Burnett Avenue in
north Galt, under the cover of pre-dawn darkness using a
theft-of-electricity warrant.
While investigators were searching the basement, a light fixture shorted
out and started smoking as a result of the tangle of crude wiring used to
bypass the electrical meter to avoid detection.
Some grow-houses draw 10 times the amount of electricity of normal houses.
Hydro officials monitor consumption in co-operation with police.
A hydro worker, who accompanied police into the home yesterday,
disconnected the fixture but not before flames charred the rafters.
Fire is just one of many hazards associated with home-grows that emergency
personnel and innocent neighbours face. Two pot houses in Cambridge and
Kitchener have been gutted by fire in the past two years.
"It's a dangerous practice for many reasons," said Staff Sgt. Ray
Massicotte, head of the Waterloo regional police drug squad.
Yesterday's grow operation was similar to the 70 that regional police have
shut down since June 2000. Holes were punched into the foundation of the
brown-brick, two-storey home, which still had Christmas lights strung
outside. A tangle of electrical wires were strung about the basement joists
overhead.
The lower level of the home had been converted into a hydroponic garden
with vats of chemical pesticides and fertilizers, huge heat lamps and
reflectors. An upstairs bedroom served as a drying room for mature plants.
In this case it appears the unidentified Vietnamese woman arrested in
yesterday's raid lived in the residence. In others, the houses are
dressed-up to look lived in to hide the criminal activity happening inside.
Massicotte said the people operating the local grows are part of an
organized crime cell growing dope for profit.
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