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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Canada: Street Value Of Grow-Op Marijuana - 15 Million
Dollars Wendy Coomber The Ashcroft Cache Creek Journal (CN BC)
Tuesday 17 Feb 2004 Police estimate the street value of plants and dried marijuana found in the Copper Courts grow-op last week to be around $1.5 million. RCMP Sgt. Gerry Fiddick says the investigation of the elaborate factory-like grow-op will continue for a long time. He suspects the operation has been in business for at least a year, judging by the approximately 2,500 live plants they found in various stages of growth and 100 pounds of dried cannabis. "We don't often find an operation that goes from seed to end product," he says. Village administrator John Desrosiers says the illegal operation "took us completely by surprise." Copper Courts can be seen from the Village's Public Works yard. Desrosiers says the first inkling anyone at the Village had about the grow-op was after police began their bust on Monday morning. That was when public works employees dropped by the Village office for coffee and to spread the news. Since falling into disuse as a recreational facility over 15 years ago, the building has had several owners, including the Village of Ashcroft who acquired it when one of the owners defaulted on their taxes. Police say the building is now owned by a "numbered company." Fiddick says the building's interior was renovated to not only accommodate growing and drying marijuana, but also for the comfort of the people watching over the operation. He says police found hundreds of movies, an expensive TV, pool tables and the building's indoor swimming pool had been repaired and was fully operational. Police are also considering a theft of hydro charge against whomever is in charge of the operation. Acting on a tip that marijuana was being grown in the building, police raided it just before 10 am on Feb. 9, armed with a search warrant and a police dog. At that time, they took a 32 year old man of no fixed address into custody without incident. The man was released on his own Recognizance to appear in Ashcroft court on charges of Production of Marijuana and Possession for the Purpose of Trafficking. Fiddick says grow-ops are moving out of the Lower Mainland, looking for out of the way places where they can conduct their business without being noticed. "I think we'll see more of it, if there already isn't," he says.
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