Pubdate: Sat, 05 Mar 2005 Source: Globe and Mail (Canada) Copyright: 2005, The Globe and Mail Company Contact: http://www.globeandmail.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168 Author: Colin Freeze and Dawn Walton, With reports from Joe Friesen and Petti Fong Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) DRUG CRIME NOURISHED IN SLEEPY COMMUNITIES Freedom From Nosy Neighbours A Plus Toronto And Whitecourt, Alta. -- By all accounts, Canada is in the midst of a marijuana grow-op boom. In just about every urban community, police are pulling pot out of dirt-filled basements underneath ordinary houses. But the real action often lies hidden in the suburbs and the boonies. Large farmhouses have concealed huge growing operations. Rows of boxcars have been buried in fields to create makeshift subterranean bunkers filled with marijuana. For criminals, the wide-open spaces of rural areas can be alluring. Nosy neighbours are few and far between. Easier access to transportation routes are enticing. And police forces tend to be small outfits, with fewer resources and dedicated drug squads. "Big-city crime is moving into the rural areas," David Bray, spokesman for Alberta Attorney-General Harvey Cenaiko, said yesterday. He said the province has long been seeking federal help to increase drug policing. "It's happening more and more in the rural areas," he said. "I'm speculating that farmhouses and sheds are harder to find [for police]. It's cheaper, and its hidden away from prying eyes." The area and highways surrounding Mayerthorpe have been singled out as a drug-trafficking concern by police and politicians. Grow-ops are "in rural places and can quickly transport to British Columbia and then south," said one police officer, who asked not to be named. Dan Bryant is a 26-year-old oil-patch worker in nearby Whitecourt who says this part of Northern Alberta is perfect for marijuana grow-ops. "It's rural, people leave you alone," he said yesterday as he dropped off four yellow daffodils at the Whitecourt RCMP detachment in memory of the four slain Mounties. But according to local police, the bigger problem in the area is crystal methamphetamine and crack cocaine. Police in Whitecourt are busy busting crystal-meth and crack operations in this booming oil and gas town. There are a lot of young people with a lot of disposable income, RCMP Constable Jeff Feist said, but the police haven't zeroed in on why the drug problem is escalating. But police across Canada for years have made what is called a "gateway" argument concerning drug operations -- that groups that cut their teeth on marijuana cultivation eventually like to try their hand at more profitable chemical drugs. And there is an ever-increasing amount of sophistication. Police said Asian groups have created a whole division of labour around marijuana cultivation: Some people specialize in buying houses, some electricians rewire houses, sitters mind the plants and others chop them up and distribute the product. Even the Mounties marvelled at the ingenuity of a scheme involving an underground bunker discovered in Manitoba in 2001. "Eight railroad cars had been transported by truck on to a private property and buried side by side in a field a short distance from the landowners," an RCMP marijuana-cultivation report said. A man paid to grow the plants lived in one car, complete with bathroom and shower facilities. The second car held a generator. The remaining six cars contained a total of 1,400 marijuana plants watered by a reverse-osmosis filtering system. Similar bunkers have been recently found in Red Deer, Alta. Suburbs and small towns also hold a certain appeal: Houses are cheaper and larger, electricity can be easy to steal, and neighbours in new subdivisions don't know one another. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth