Pubdate: Wed, 19 Oct 2005 Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB) Copyright: 2005 Winnipeg Free Press Contact: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502 Author: Jason Bell Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada) RAID TURNS UP YET ANOTHER HUGE POT FARM Retractable Buildings Sheltered Sophisticated Inwood Grow Op INWOOD -- RCMP unearthed another massive rural pot farm yesterday after a six-week investigation, and are now focusing on rooting out the masterminds behind the most sophisticated drug operation ever seen on Manitoba soil. Police arrested one man and seized 800 pounds of cultivated marijuana and an undetermined number of plants, stalks and stems during an early-morning raid at a property on Highway 17, about 16 kilometres north of Inwood in the Interlake district. Two trucks hauling a combined 1,000 pounds of cut marijuana from the farm to markets in eastern Canada were also stopped Saturday, one just outside Toronto and the other at the West Hawk Lake weigh station. Investigators were still assessing the amount of marijuana seized on the farm about 90 kilometres north of Winnipeg, but estimated the street value at several million dollars. The bust comes just 11 days after the RCMP drug squad shut a huge outdoor pot farm in the southeastern Manitoba village of Sundown. Some 28 individuals were arrested in that operation, which had an estimated street-level value of nearly $19 million Staff Sgt. John Fleming, head of the RCMP's Winnipeg drug section, confirmed the two Chinese-run operations are linked. Both, he said, were driven by organized crime. "This is the first season we've seen it here... very large, complex organized groups moving into rural Manitoba, buying up property and putting together very sophisticated grow operations," Fleming said. "Our investigation is continuing to help us identify the organized crime connections in both Vancouver and Toronto. "The RCMP in Manitoba have had considerable success this fall in taking down rural grow ops, and in doing so have reduced the potential harm to the public in a very large manner." Working on a tip from the public, the RCMP drug squad kept round-the-clock ground and air surveillance of the 360-acre Inwood-area property, executing a search warrant yesterday with the help of the emergency response unit and riot squad. Nearly half a kilometre into the bush, police found 10 greenhouses, each 50 feet wide and 500 feet long. Fleming said the grow operation was the most sophisticated that investigators had ever seen. "These greenhouses had the ability to be pulled on railway tracks off the grow to allow direct sunlight, and then repositioned over the grow during the night," he said. "This is huge when you look at the infrastructure and the money it took to build these greenhouses on the property." According to property records from the RM of Armstrong, the property is owned by Tsung-Tien Yan. A Winnipeg lawyer who did the paperwork on the real estate deal said she was shocked to hear about the pot operation. "Oh my gosh... that's surprising," said Eva Luk, of Luk Law. "There was nothing unusual because they thought the land in Manitoba was cheap, so they wanted to buy it for cattle and cash crops. "I really feel bad now. But how much due diligence can you do?" Several neighbours say they figured something strange was going on, and weren't surprised to hear police lurking in the community for weeks had finally moved in. "In the spring, with snow on the ground, buying land is not what most people would do," said Carol Lavallee, who lives about a kilometre north of the grow operation. "This was not your usual farm family moving in." Lavallee said one of her neighbours asked one of the men working the marijuana farm what they were growing. "He said they were going to grow Chinese vegetables," she said. Lavallee, who lives only minutes from the famous Narcisse snake pits, said she was disgusted to have a grow op just down the street. "We've got snakes on all sides of us," she said. Another neighbour, who did not want to be identified, said they were approached by one of the alleged drug growers who wanted to buy their property. Staff Sgt. Fleming said a crucial part of the investigation was following one of the trucks as far as they could, with the aid of police in Ontario. "One of our main goals was to find out where all this marijuana was going." he said. "... We have maintained 24-hour-a-day, seven-days-a-week surveillance with these sites, with the goal of identifying the loads leaving the grow sites and taking them to their final destination." On Oct. 7, RCMP uprooted an outdoor farm near Sundown and arrested 28 people who allegedly worked there. Crown attorney Anne Turner, speaking yesterday at the bail hearing for one of the suspects in the Sundown pot bust, told court the extensive probe isn't over. "The investigation is continuing to determine who's at the top," she said. "The owner has not been arrested." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom