SirBlazinBowl
New Member
JUST weeks after they shut down the largest outdoor marijuana growing operation ever found in Manitoba, RCMP discovered another big one Wednesday outside the hamlet of Arden, where more than 7,500 plants were growing at an isolated farm property.
Mounties say the two grow operations signify a new trend in marijuana cultivation by organized criminal groups, who are buying big, cheap, vacant farms to be used exclusively for growing and harvesting pot. And now RCMP are appealing to people in Manitoba's farming community to help root them out.
"Every year we find outdoor grows," drug section Staff Sgt. John Fleming said yesterday. "But this year they've just exploded in size. "Now is the time for Manitobans to take a look around," Fleming said. "If someone just moved in last year and there's no tractor, no swathing and no animals, call your local detachment."
Fleming said too often people supply police with information only after a raid. He said rural residents have reported that new property owners sometimes tell neighbours they bought the farm to raise cattle. "When the neighbour asked them what kind of cattle, the answer was, 'The big brown ones,'" Fleming said.
That should be a tipoff, he added. The other is that growers keep to themselves and don't mix in the community. "They don't make friends," Fleming said.
In the Arden raid, the marijuana was growing in a bushy area and could only be seen from the air. The farm is 10 kilometres north of Arden, which is northeast of Neepawa.
"The nearest neighbours are a mile in every direction," Fleming said.
The pot was being grown in organized plots, complete with fertilizer and a watering system.
But Mounties pulled up the plants before they had gone to seed or started budding, meaning the marijuana was a few weeks shy of being harvested and had limited value if packaged and sold on the street. Fleming said the most valuable part of the plant is the bud, which has the highest content of THC, the ingredient in marijuana that generates the high.
A plant with full buds is worth about $1,000, so if the Arden plants had been harvested, the potential street value would have been about $7.5 million.
The raid comes just over two weeks after Mounties uncovered 13,200 pot plants in a raid at a farm in the RM of Sifton south of Oak Lake and 53 kilometres west of Brandon. The plants were growing in various plots in bush clearings north and east of the residence and farm buildings.
A 46-year-old Scarborough, Ont. man was charged with production of a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking. Fleming said the two raids are not related.
In the past, RCMP routinely found outdoor grow ops with no more than 200 plants, and usually on Crown land.
By moving onto isolated farms, Fleming said, organized growers are branching out from urban indoor hydroponic grow ops. Hundreds of the indoor grows have been found in Winnipeg in the past three years, and many have been linked to Asian-based organized crime.
Fleming said there could be considerably more large-scale outdoor grows in rural areas, because some empty farm properties can be bought reasonably cheap.
Ping Liang, 43, and Chun Choi, 44, were arrested on the Arden property and face charges of production of marijuana and possession for the purpose of trafficking under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
Newshawk: SirBlazinBowl - 420Times.com
Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB)
Copyright: 2005 Winnipeg Free Press
Contact: letters@freepress.mb.ca
Website: Winnipeg Free Press – Breaking News, Sports, Manitoba, Canada
Author: Bruce Owen
Mounties say the two grow operations signify a new trend in marijuana cultivation by organized criminal groups, who are buying big, cheap, vacant farms to be used exclusively for growing and harvesting pot. And now RCMP are appealing to people in Manitoba's farming community to help root them out.
"Every year we find outdoor grows," drug section Staff Sgt. John Fleming said yesterday. "But this year they've just exploded in size. "Now is the time for Manitobans to take a look around," Fleming said. "If someone just moved in last year and there's no tractor, no swathing and no animals, call your local detachment."
Fleming said too often people supply police with information only after a raid. He said rural residents have reported that new property owners sometimes tell neighbours they bought the farm to raise cattle. "When the neighbour asked them what kind of cattle, the answer was, 'The big brown ones,'" Fleming said.
That should be a tipoff, he added. The other is that growers keep to themselves and don't mix in the community. "They don't make friends," Fleming said.
In the Arden raid, the marijuana was growing in a bushy area and could only be seen from the air. The farm is 10 kilometres north of Arden, which is northeast of Neepawa.
"The nearest neighbours are a mile in every direction," Fleming said.
The pot was being grown in organized plots, complete with fertilizer and a watering system.
But Mounties pulled up the plants before they had gone to seed or started budding, meaning the marijuana was a few weeks shy of being harvested and had limited value if packaged and sold on the street. Fleming said the most valuable part of the plant is the bud, which has the highest content of THC, the ingredient in marijuana that generates the high.
A plant with full buds is worth about $1,000, so if the Arden plants had been harvested, the potential street value would have been about $7.5 million.
The raid comes just over two weeks after Mounties uncovered 13,200 pot plants in a raid at a farm in the RM of Sifton south of Oak Lake and 53 kilometres west of Brandon. The plants were growing in various plots in bush clearings north and east of the residence and farm buildings.
A 46-year-old Scarborough, Ont. man was charged with production of a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking. Fleming said the two raids are not related.
In the past, RCMP routinely found outdoor grow ops with no more than 200 plants, and usually on Crown land.
By moving onto isolated farms, Fleming said, organized growers are branching out from urban indoor hydroponic grow ops. Hundreds of the indoor grows have been found in Winnipeg in the past three years, and many have been linked to Asian-based organized crime.
Fleming said there could be considerably more large-scale outdoor grows in rural areas, because some empty farm properties can be bought reasonably cheap.
Ping Liang, 43, and Chun Choi, 44, were arrested on the Arden property and face charges of production of marijuana and possession for the purpose of trafficking under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
Newshawk: SirBlazinBowl - 420Times.com
Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB)
Copyright: 2005 Winnipeg Free Press
Contact: letters@freepress.mb.ca
Website: Winnipeg Free Press – Breaking News, Sports, Manitoba, Canada
Author: Bruce Owen
