Pubdate: Sun, 13 Apr 2003
Source: Ottawa Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2003, Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact:  http://www.fyiottawa.com/ottsun.shtml
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/329
Author: John Steinbachs, Crime Reporter
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

TOUGHER PENALTIES FOR BOOBY TRAPS CHEERED

Pot growers who set deadly traps to protect their harvest may soon face 
stiffer jail sentences under new legislation tabled in the House of Commons 
on Friday.

Justice Minister Martin Cauchon announced the proposed amendments to the 
Criminal Code that would see the maximum penalty for setting a trap in a 
place used for a criminal purpose rise from 10 years to 14 years in a case 
where someone is injured.

The maximum sentence would be life imprisonment in an incident where 
someone is killed by a trap.

The legislation is aimed primarily at a growing industry of marijuana 
growers across Canada.

Firefighters At Risk

"We have to protect emergency workers like firefighters on the front line 
who may be exposed to dangerous situations like marijuana grow operations 
or clandestine drug labs," said Cauchon.

"The nature of these criminal activities creates a risk of fire. If 
firefighters or police officers are put at risk, injured or killed by traps 
set to defend these criminal enterprises from law enforcement or rival 
gangs, those who set the traps must feel the full weight of the law."

The concern is that firefighters and police responding to a fire or 
enforcing a search warrant may walk into a deadly trap.

The traps are likely put in houses and outdoor grows to defend marijuana 
plants from rival groups.

"It's more designed to keep the competition away but it is indiscriminate, 
that's the danger of it," said Staff Sgt. Marc Pinault, national 
co-ordinator for marijuana grow operations at the drug branch of the RCMP 
headquarters.

Organized crime gangs have turned marijuana cultivation into a 
multibillion-dollar industry starting in British Columbia.

The trend of marijuana growing operations has moved east and many are 
currently operating in cities like Ottawa.

Dunrobin Raid

On Thursday, Ottawa police raided a Dunrobin Rd. home and seized $800,000 
worth of drugs. One man was arrested. It was just one of dozens of similar 
homes police have raided in recent years.

Officials say traps include crossbows rigged so that they will fire bolts 
at anyone opening certain doors and also concealed holes dug in floors of 
buildings used to grow marijuana. Those types of traps have not been seen 
in Ottawa.

The amendment has also been supported by the International Association of 
Firefighters, which has been seeking changes that would protect on-duty 
firefighters from criminal acts.
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