Pubdate: Thu, 11 May 2000 Source: International Herald-Tribune (France) Copyright: International Herald Tribune 2000 Contact: 181, Avenue Charles de Gaulle, 92521 Neuilly Cedex, France Fax: (33) 1 41 43 93 38 Website: http://www.iht.com/ Author: Steven Pearlstein, Washington Post Service VANCOUVER HIGH / 'B.C. BUD' PACKS A WALLOP Vietnamese Gangs Corner A Canadian Growth Industry [Illustration shows three] "Smokers enjoying marijuana joints in a cafe in Vancouver, where some restaurants have advertised dishes spiked with "Mary Jane" even though some coffeehouses have lost their licenses bnecause of drug abuses. Below, the illegal weed, often found growing in the city's high-rent districts" [photo of marijuana leaf.] WEST VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Jean Simpson was out weeding her perennial beds on a brilliant spring afternoon last month when two vans pulled up in front of her house, disgorging a squad of police officers in flak jackets who began marching double time down Kenwood Street. After knocking on the front door four houses away, they drew their revolvers, smashed into the million-dollar mansion and emerged minutes later with their quarry: 78 potted plants. "I suppose this is not exactly what you'd expect in what's supposed to be the richest and safest community in Canada," said Mrs. Simpson, a real estate agent. But these days, it is hardly an unusual occurrence. With so many houses put up for rent by absentee owners, Mrs. Simpson's exclusive neighborhood has become a favored location for British Columbia's fastest-growing industry: the illegal cultivation of some of the world's most sought-after marijuana. After years of selective breeding and cuttingedge cultivation techniques, experts say that "B.C. Bud" has three to five times the potency, or THC levels, of marijuana grown outdoors in Mexico or the Caribbean. And from its benign roots as a backyard avocation of aging hippies, the marijuana trade here has grown into a sophisticated, multibillion-dollar industry that rivals forestry and tourism in its economic impact and is largely controlled by Vietnamese crime gangs and the Hell's Angels motorcycle crew. With most of the marijuana destined for markets south of the border, U.S. officials have been pressing Canada to take more aggressive steps to halt the flow of B.C. Bud. Raids on indoor growing houses are now daily occurrences, while special teams of U.S. and Canadian police, using the latest military technology, prowl British Columbia's hundreds of miles of unfenced border every night in search of "mules" carrying hockey equipment bags stuffed with marijuana. But with Canadian courts reluctant to give serious jail time to low-level growers and couriers, even the police concede that their steppedup enforcement has been ineffective in getting the testimony necessary to win convictions against kingpins. "At the end of the day, the court system here doesn't offer much of a deterrence," said Constable John lbbotson of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who has spent more than a decade in drug enforcement in the Vancouver area. A recent study by the Vancouver Sun newspaper, in fact, found that while growing and transporting commercial quantities of marijuana carry penalties of up to seven years in prison, only one in five people convicted of the crimes received any jail time - and of those who did, nearly all could have been out within 45 days. Most of the rest received fines averaging about $2,000, the annual revenue from one plant. It is no surprise that British Columbia has become a center of excellence for the marijuana trade. Much like California, the region became a haven for baby boomers seeking an alternative lifestyle in the 1970s, and their liberal and liber-tarian values continue to color life on Canada's "Left Coast." People can be seen lighting up joints in bars and coffee shops or even on a central street while certain cafes boast dishes laced with "Mary Jane." And with the police already overwhelmed by the growing traffic in cocaine and heroin, recreational marijuana use was simply not a lawenforcement priority. Not coincidentally, a solid majority of British Columbian voters favored some form of legalization. By the early 1990s, marijuana had become a cottage industry, particularly in rural areas where declines in the region's traditional fishing, mining and logging industries had left legions underemployed. Using 1,000-watt metal halide light bulbs and special indoor growing tech-niques to produ i ce ever more potent plants, local growers found a new cash crop for export. Local merchants began to do a brisk business in hy-droponic equipment (there are now 29 stores listed in the Vancouver yellow pages) while specialized dial-a-harvest teams sprang up to cut, dry and package the crop for sale. By the end of the decade, a pound (450 grams) of B.C. Bud was fetching $3,000 across the border in Wash-ington state and $6,000 on the streets of New York and Los Angeles. According to Canadian police, it was the local chapter of the Hell's Angels, reputed to be the richest in North America, that began to bring disciplined organization to the marijuana trade, integrating a network of independent growers with an effective distribution network in the United States. Beginning in 1995, however, the motorcyclists began to be edged out by Vietnamese gangs that not only recruited low-cost immigrant workers to the trade but also were more willing to use beatings and murder to shut out competitors. "The Vietnamese," a U.S. law enforcement official said, "make the Hell's Angels look like angels. Just last month, for example, a 24-year-old Vietnamese immigrant named John Ly was beaten to death in his rented house in Burnaby, a Vancouver suburb, where he lived with his wife and children. The police found 140 marijuana plants growing in the basement. It was the fourth such gangland-style murder in eight weeks. INVESTIGATORS SAY the Vietnamese growers follow a disciplined routine. Each gang has specialists - usually nice, wellspoken young couples -- who lease houses from property managers. They never move in, but instead send a professional crew to hook up the necessary heating and ventilation systems. The crew also arranges an electrical bypass so the local power company is unable to detect any sudden increase in power use required by the high-watt bulbs. Then, a recent immigrant with little or no knowledge of the rest of the operation is offered the opportunity to live with his family in the house in return for watering the plants and keeping out of sight. A crew is sent in every few months to harvest the marijuana and prepare it for export. In recent months, the tide of public opinion has begun to shift against the marijuana trade as its impact has begun to be felt in the normally quiet suburban communities around Vancouver. Local fire departments have reported dozens of house fires caused by faulty wiring associated with the high-watt lamps. And the police have blamed gang members for a rash of break-ins at homes mistakenly identified as rival growing operations. Last year, British Columbia moved to bring some much-needed coordination to its underfunded drug enforcement effort, which is divided among dozens of local jurisdictions, by launching a B.C. Organized Crime Agency with sweeping new powers and some additional manpower. - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck