Police Busy Busting Grow-Ops

POLICE BUSY BUSTING GROW-OPS You could smell the harvest as you walked to the house. An odour akin to skunk cabbages, musky and stronger than freshly cut grass. Yesterday, Ridge Meadows RCMP took down a grow operation in a house on 245 B Street. Stolen electricity led police to the residence. RCMP Cpl. C. Sundher says the growers didn't bother to mask the smell of marijuana. It was not like your average grow-op house, he noted. There were signs that people lived there. The house backs on to the new Samuel Robertson Technical School. The sparsely furnished living room had been turned into a temporary play pen, a stuffed dalmatian propped in the corner. Sundher said that grow-op houses are usually bare. The cupboards in this house were empty. The kitchen looked like it was rarely used. "A work site, that's what grows are," he said. "There were no documents of residency." No bills. No mail. No phone line. The operation was concentrated in a crawl space of the house. The space was accessed through a trap door in the bedroom cupboard, which took the RCMP a while to find. Below, wires criss-crossed an intricate ventilation system and 1,000-watt light bulbs simulated the glaring heat of a 28 C summer day. The occupants had bypassed the hydro meter and were using ballasts to boost the voltage. RCMP believe the operation had been in production for at least six months. A vacant drying room and stacks of empty pots were in the crawl space, signs of a previous harvest. Two rooms of marijuana plants were just flowering and weeks into their 90-day growth cycle. The grow operation is being linked to Asian organized crime and Sundher said it probably employed a few people, from a person to look after the plants to electricians and plumbers who fashioned the crawl space into a perfect green house. "It is one thing to grow marijuana and it's another thing to sell it, you have to have connections," said Sundher. "Everyone makes money off it." RCMP seized the plants and continue to investigate the matter. Tuesday's grow-op was the fifth local RCMP took down in six days. RCMP Cpl. Bernie Smandych said the number of busts is unusually high, but are a result of investigations yielding results at the same time. "These are fairly close together but this is number 20 since Jan. 1," Smandych said. The Ridge Meadows detachment receives around 400 tips regarding grow-ops every year, she added. On Thursday, RCMP responded to a call from an apartment building in the 12200 block of 224 Street. Tenants complained there was water leaking from a fourth floor apartment into the units below. Police were called after the occupant refused to entry to the landlord. He fled while the police were en route. Upon arrival, RCMP discovered a two-room marijuana grow operation containing 200 plants. The suspect is still at large and the matter is under investigation. On Saturday, around noon, RCMP on patrol noticed smoke and embers rising over the roof of a house in the 23800 block of Dewdney Trunk Road. An officer went to the residence and spoke with a woman who directed him next door. While speaking to the woman, the officer noticed a grow operation at her residence, but dealt with the fire as it was a priority. A man at the second residence was burning garbage and used a dog to hold off the police and fire department. He attempted to run into the residence, was pursued and arrested after a brief struggle. Police seized 328 marijuana plants growing in a shed and in the garden of the residence. Police are recommending charges of production and possession for the purpose of trafficking against the 41-year old Maple Ridge resident. He has been released from custody and has yet to appear in court. Police also seized 188 marijuana plants from a hidden room in the first residence but were unable to arrest the female occupant as she fled while they dealt with the fire next door. Police know the identity of the female suspect and continue to investigate her involvement in the grow operation. On Monday, RCMP executed search warrants at a residence on Cunningham Avenue in Whonnock. Four grow rooms were located in the residence and 550 marijuana plants were seized. No one was arrested at the scene, but police have suspects in mind. They plan to recommend charges of production and possession for the purpose of trafficking.