Pubdate: Fri, 04 Mar 2005 Source: National Post (Canada) Copyright: 2005 Southam Inc. Contact: http://www.nationalpost.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286 Author: Ian Bailey, with files from Lindsay Kines, CanWest News Service Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Rochfort+Bridge (Rochfort Bridge) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada) GROW-OPS A 'PLAGUE' ON SOCIETY RCMP Chief: 'Four of Our Own Paid the Highest Price to Fight This Fight' OTTAWA - As RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli paid tribute late yesterday to the four Mounties slain during a raid on an Alberta marijuana grow operation, he rededicated the force to the fight against drugs and warned that grow-ops are a "plague" on Canadian society. "Today, we recognize with gratitude and respect that four of our own paid the highest price to fight this fight," said a sombre Mr. Zaccardelli. The officers, he said, "went to work not knowing on this day they would be asked to make the ultimate sacrifice." He offered his condolences to the families of the officers, saying the force stood with them in their tragedy. "But policing and these major operations are never without risk. This is the tragedy of what happened here." But the officer took a moment to warn about the risk of grow-ops. "The issue of grow-ops is not a ma and pa industry as we have been saying for a number of years," he said. "These are major, serious threats to our society, and they are major serious threats to the men and women on the frontline who have to deal with them. They are booby- trapped. They are high-risk issues and major organized crime, in many cases, is involved." He added: "This is a plague on our society now. "Today, the RCMP continued its vigilant effort to detect and dismantle illegal drug manufacturing and to, without stint, respond to the calls for a drug-free Canada." Some sentences regarding grow-ops, he said, seem "disproportionate to the seriousness of the crime." Alberta Solicitor-General, Harvey Cenaiko, also warned about the dangers of grow-ops. "It's a tragic loss. A tragic loss to the RCMP is always a tragic loss to the communities," he said. "The officers were well respected in their communities, were all involved in their communities and this is a tragic loss for the communities surrounding Mayerthorpe. "This issue was senseless and the fact that four officers were killed with regard to a grow-operation goes to the seriousness of the fact that organized crime, illegal cultivation of marijuana or the illegal production of crystal meth is all around us, including in a small town like Mayerthorpe." B.C. Attorney-General Geoff Plant said the murders should dispel any doubts people might have about the dangerous nature of marijuana grow-operations. "I think there is an attitude that is part of our culture in British Columbia that thinks that a grow-op is just your neighbour making a couple of bags of marijuana for some of his friends," Mr. Plant said in an interview at the legislature, shortly after learning of the deaths. "Whether that was ever true -- 20 or 30 years ago -- it's sure not true today. "We're talking about the commercial manufacture of marijuana for the purpose of participating in an international organized crime activity. That's very serious business." Victoria police chief Paul Battershill, whose partner was killed in a police raid in Vancouver in 1987, said investigators increasingly find grow-operations that are either fortified, booby-trapped, or guarded by people with weapons. "I think, in some respects, people think of grows as 'Mom and Pop' operations," he said. "Certainly, when I was on an ERT [emergency response] team, we were encountering grows that were protected by people with weapons. Obviously that trend is increasing." Neil Boyd, a criminology professor at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C., who specializes in drugs and violence, said, "Most people involved in the marijuana grow-op would never contemplate killing four police officers or shooting at them. "It doesn't advance their interests. This is an abnormality." However, he admitted that the larger the clandestine operation and the greater the profit at risk the higher the likelihood of violence. It's also not unheard of to have people armed with knives, guns and baseball bats on site to keep their illegal and lucrative product safe. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake