CHILDREN SEIZED AT GROW-OP

Two school-age children were taken into care during what Nanaimo RCMP
describe as a raid on a "substantial" marijuana grow-op in the family
home.

A boy and girl, about age 10 and eight, respectively, were taken from
Uplands elementary school while RCMP municipal drug section officers
started a search of their parents' home in the 4000-block of Uplands
Drive.

"Our youth response team attended the school where the children were
and contacted the Ministry of Children and Families and intervened,"
said Const. Jen Allan, an RCMP spokeswoman.

"There's obviously physical dangers and huge health and safety
concerns to anybody exposed to a grow up, but children in
particular."

Mounties armed with a search warrant, started searching the house at 1
p.m. Thursday. An officer wearing protective clothing and a mask
paused at the top of the stairs to avoid tripping on a pair of girls
Barbie running shoes. Neatly placed behind them were a pair of dark
blue boy's runners.

Downstairs, the basement was partitioned off with makeshift walls into
separate rooms where the drug was in various stages of growth, from
seedlings through leafy plants through a budding cash crop.

"They found a fairly sophisticated grow-op," Allan
said.

Police seized 265 cannabis plants and worked through the afternoon
gathering an assortment of grow-op materials -- bales of peat moss,
fertilizer, lights and other equipment. Bare wires running to lights
and equipment posed the risk of shock or electrocution for members as
they seized evidence.

No one was arrested on the scene and no names were
released.

Neighbours said the family that lived there kept to
themselves.

"We had no contact with them, they never even said hello, not even a
wave," said Ian Swanson, who lives across the street.

The strong smell made them suspicious a grow-op was in the
neighbourhood a year ago. Their 18-year-old son eventually narrowed it
down to the house across the street.

"My son frankly came to the conclusion it was that house, because
there wasn't any frost on the roof, and when he was backing out (in
the car) he noticed the smell became stronger," said Colleen Swanson.

"We always smelled it in the air and we thought, where is it coming
from?"

No word was available on the status of the children.