- Marijuana grow operations, many of them in well-to-do
suburban neighbourhoods, "have reached epidemic levels in Ontario,
Quebec and particularly British Columbia," says a classified RCMP
report on organized crime.
-
- The detailed analysis of threats from myriad sophisticated
criminal gangs across Canada pegs the illicit indoor and outdoor marijuana
gardens as "an economic mainstay for all crime groups."
-
- Moreover, the report says the profit from the operations
is so great that violence over them -- including murders -- is "on
the rise in most areas of the country."
-
- Police in Canada have seized an average of 1.4 million
marijuana plants in each of the past four years, representing a six-fold
increase from 1993, the report says. Based on the size of the seizures
and the average plant yield, the RCMP estimates the annual marijuana production
in Canada to be 800 tonnes.
-
- "The sheer size of those operations has reached
unprecedented levels. Each year, several multi-thousand plant operations
are discovered both indoors and outdoors," the report says.
-
- The cultivation of marijuana, a drug on the verge of
going before Parliament to decriminalize its possession, is undertaken
by many criminal groups studied in the RCMP intelligence report obtained
by the National Post.
-
- "Outlaw motorcycle gangs used to enjoy a virtual
monopoly over marijuana grow operations but they now have to contend with
an increasing Asian organized-crime presence in some parts of the country,"
the report says.
-
- It is now a particular favourite of Vietnamese gangs.
-
- "Vietnamese-based organized crime groups ... are
considered violent and are involved in different criminal activities, particularly
marijuana grow operations and related money laundering."
-
- The gangs often distance themselves from the operation
by hiring new immigrants to tend the crops.
-
- "Violence has always been an intrinsic part of the
production, trafficking and distribution of illicit drugs and marijuana
is no exception. There are broad indications that violence associated with
marijuana grow operations is on the rise in most areas of the country,"
the report says.
-
- "The marijuana grow phenomenon continues to grow
and it should remain a major source of revenue for various types of organized
crime. They have a disruptive effect on communities, since disputes over
these operations can turn violent."
-
- The report says police have linked home invasions, drug
thefts, burglaries, assaults and murders to the operations.
-
- Canada's homegrown marijuana is being smuggled to the
United States and the proceeds from sales then repatriated to gangsters
here. The marijuana is also being traded in the United States for cocaine,
which is then imported and sold in Canada, the report says.
-
- The prominence of issues relating to marijuana grow operations
in the 40-page report, distributed internally in April to help guide and
prioritize major investigations launched by the RCMP, suggests the seriousness
with which the force views the problem.
-
- Dan McTeague, a Liberal MP, said the report raises serious
concerns that are ignored in the government's proposed amendments to the
Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, the legislation that would decriminalize
simple possession of marijuana.
-
- "The issue of decriminalization has obscured the
real problem here. We seem to have lost sight of the profound implications
for public security that stems from marijuana grow operations," Mr.
McTeague said.
-
- The amendments, which also deal with grow operation offences,
is "woefully inadequate" in tackling the epidemic because it
does not require minimum prison terms for those caught running the operations,
nor does it have escalating sentencing provisions for repeat offenders,
he said.
-
- "In the rush to meet the Prime Minister's agenda,
we are avoiding a very serious social and security issue. Most of us see
this as a bad Cheech and Chong movie, but it is giving rise to the penetration
of organized crime that now threatens our valued institutions," he
said.
-
- Figures contained in a separate confidential report,
prepared by the Criminal Intelligence Service Ontario and obtained by the
Post, says that in the Toronto area, in the years 2000 to 2002, 152 sentences
were handed out for running a grow operation.
-
- Only 42 of them included incarceration; the average sentence
was 46 days in custody.
-
- The CISO report says 85% of the marijuana cultivation
and distribution in B.C. is controlled by outlaw bikers and Vietnamese
gangs. The joint police intelligence agency suspects that situation is
mirrored in Ontario, although more research is needed.
-
- The RCMP's report says the immediate outlook for law
enforcement is not good.
-
- "High profitability, low risk and relatively lenient
sentences continue to entice growers, making it difficult, if not impossible,
for the police to make a truly lasting impact on the marijuana cultivation
industry in Canada.
-
- "Since marijuana is by far the most popular and
widely available illicit drug, it is unlikely that the current trend will
change in the near future," it concludes.
-
- Licensed real estate agents of Vietnamese origin have
helped Asian organized crime groups purchase or lease homes for use as
illicit marijuana grow operations, says a confidential report by Criminal
Intelligence Service Ontario.
-
- The homes, often in well-to-do neighbourhoods, are used
to grow massive quantities of high-grade marijuana, says the report by
the joint police agency that co-ordinates funding to police services involved
in major investigations.
-
- The homes are not the squalid, inner-city crack houses
usually associated with the drug trade but large, modern suburban homes
with double garages.
-
- The report, obtained by the National Post, says recent
reports on operations raided by police are largely consistent, leading
to a portrait of a "typical grow op."
-
- The gangsters start by looking for specific homes:
-
- - They are usually more than 2,000 square feet and priced
between $200,000 and $500,000;
-
- - The basement is unfinished to facilitate the rewiring
needed to hook up the 1,000-watt lights and other equipment needed to grow
the marijuana plants;
-
- - A fireplace is needed to vent the powerful odour from
the crop; and
-
- - A large, attached garage is needed to conceal vehicles
used to transport the harvested crops.
-
- Once the home is bought, a renovation crew installs the
heating and venting systems and an electrical bypass box to steal the massive
amount of electricity needed. Spreading the hydro draw between unsuspecting
neighbours masks the hydro spike when the grow op starts.
-
- "Once the operation is set up, a 'crop sitter' --
often a recent immigrant -- with little or no knowledge of the rest of
the operation is paid a nominal wage to water the plants and generally
tend to the daily upkeep," says the report.
-
- "To avoid eliciting suspicion by neighbours, the
crop sitter will sometimes have his or her entire family live in the dwelling."
-
- The operations typically generate at least 600 plants
each cycle with a retail value of $600,000.
-
- "As many as 10,000 children may have resided in
grow-op dwellings over the 2000-2003 period," the CISO report says.
-
- © Copyright 2003 National Post
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- http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?id=
0B62353A-DE36-4484-BE87-0B2B16BB8403
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-
- Comment
- From Anonymous
- 11-1-3
-
- I'm writing you with regards to your reprinting of the
lies written in the National Post by Adrian Humphreys and Stewart Bell.
These individuals, and the article Violence Grows as Marijuana Profits
Rise is clearly an article written by Alliance Party supporters in an attempt
to kill Prime Minister Chretien's decriminalization bill before Mr. Chretien
leaves office. The Alliance party is a US Republican clone. They're attempting
the Nazification of Canada.
-
- In this article, they reference an RCMP report which
was leaked to the National Post. They say, "Outlaw motorcycle gangs
used to enjoy a virtual monopoly over marijuana grow operations but they
now have to contend with an increasing Asian organized-crime presence in
some parts of the country," the report says.
-
- It is now a particular favourite of Vietnamese gangs.
-
- "Vietnamese-based organized crime groups ... are
considered violent and are involved in different criminal activities, particularly
marijuana grow operations and related money laundering."
-
- What they do NOT mention is that ever since the DEA and
FBI set up shop here in Canada in earnest after 9/11, there's been a scorched
earth policy toward people of color, whereas the vast majority of the established
white criminal organizations have been left alone. There are several cases
in Vancouver courts right now regarding police brutality against Asian
immigrants, and not just against drug dealers.
-
- Effectively, the DEA, RCMP, and Vancouver PD are engaged
in wiping out the competition for their "favored" suppliers -
white christian organized criminals who are under competetive pressure
from Vietnamese, Persian, and East Indian gangs.
-
- These white supremacist cops (who have been witnesses
making racist comments to their victims as testified to by some of their
fellow cops) have been actively picking up Asian competitors off the street,
taking them to parks or alleys, and beating them down to the point of near
death.
-
- These cops are NOT concerned about marijuana sales...
they are concerned that if the price per pound of marijuana drops any lower,
and the competition isn't eliminated, their kickbacks will suffer. They
are working FOR those "outlaw gangs" that they claim are responsible
for the violence. In fact, it's the police that are responsible for 99%
of marijuana related violence.
-
- Prior to the entry of Chinese and Vietnamese gangs into
these markets in the 1980's, there were almost no arrests for cultivation
in BC. This was because the white biker gangs had all the vice cops in
RCMP, Van PD, and CLEU (Coordinated Law Enforcement Unit) on their payroll,
or addicted to drugs. I know this because I was a cocaine addict at the
time, and half my dealer's clients were vice cops. I used to freebase
with vice cops on a regular basis. Some of them were even mainlining.
-
- Jeff, I implore you, please stop publishing this GOP
Nazi trash. The only thing the RCMP is worried about is that the Vietnamese
and Chinese refuse to pay them kickbacks, and the "violence"
and bad headlines are their way of trying to get Asians to play ball with
the "American Way"... bribery in exchange for safe passage of
their product.
-
- This is also why the RCMP wants marijuana to remain illegal.
Kickbacks from multimillion dollar grow ops run by white guys have been
their bread and butter for 20 years. If this well runs dry, they're concerned
that the dirty cops will start going wild wild west and turn parts of BC
and Ontario into an LA Rampart type situation in their quest for new sources
of illicit revenue.
-
- And that's the honest truth, from someone who's seen
the dark side of the street.
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