B.C.'s grow-bust nets 15,000 pot plants

[moldyorangepeel]

B.C.'s grow-bust nets 15,000 pot plants
Last Updated: Tuesday, August 26, 2008 | 7:08 PM ET
CBC News

RCMP investigators are riding high after busting what they say is possibly the largest marijuana growing operation ever uncovered in B.C.

Twenty-three greenhouses filled with 15,000 mature cannabis plants were discovered last week near 100 Mile House in the central Interior of B.C., according to police.

The plants would have produced an estimated 2.5 million to five-million marijuana cigarettes, enough for two joints per man, woman and child in B.C., said Const. Craig Douglass

After receiving a tip, police obtained a search warrant for a rural property on Wilson Lake Road in the community of Bridge Lake.



"The greenhouses were amongst the hills. Just driving by or walking by on the road, you wouldn't see the greenhouses. You would have to walk the property line or see it by air," said Douglass.

Even police familiar with B.C.'s booming marijuana industry were surprised by what they saw when they raided the property on Aug. 20, said Douglass.

"This marijuana grow operation is the largest property grow-op I have been to," said Douglass.

Six people were arrested at the scene and are facing charges of possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking, and production of a controlled substance, pending charge approval from federal Crown counsel.

Police did not release their names, but the suspects are to appear in court in October to face the charges.

RCMP suspect the grow operation had connections to organized crime.

"For somebody to distribute that amount of marijuana without organized crime connection would be, I think, near impossible," said Douglass.

Previously the largest grow-op busted in B.C. was an operation uncovered in November 2006 by Williams Lake RCMP.

Inside the house, police found every room equipped with high-powered lights connected by unapproved wiring and about 5,600 marijuana plants. Police estimated that the grow-op was capable of producing much more, up to 22,000 plants a year.

In what was perhaps the biggest bust of a marijuana grow-op in Canadian history, on Jan. 12, 2004, police seized 30,000 plants that would have produced marijuana worth $30 million on the streets, hidden inside a closed Molson brewery in Barrie, Ont.

[©antSEEme]

what a sad and pathetic abuse of government spending, tracking down plants.

yay, we siezed lots of plants. horray, we make a difference. ppl will think twice. yeah... no. and to spice it up, an undeclared and factless statement on being connected to organized crime. go leo's!

and my favorite part on reading terrible stories like this is how they always break down the whole scale of the operation into joint size. like joints are always uniform. like we scale every blunt, every joint, every bowl, everytime. yay scare tactics and media paranoia hype.

The plants would have produced an estimated 2.5 million to five-million marijuana cigarettes, enough for two joints per man, woman and child in B.C., said Const. Craig Douglass

i iz scurred

[Smaerd]

Sweet now pot prices just raised... Good job government?

[moldyorangepeel]

somebody should go up there and fill that void for them eh?

[smallarmsfire]

hard to imagine that in all the aerial scouting they do for outdoor that this wouldn't have put up a flag sometime later this fall.


looks amazing though.. can't imagine all the work that went into construction. no surprise really that the "inner circle" wasn't quite tight enough... had to have been a whole friggin crew chuggin away on it.

[SublimeStylez]

...15,000 plants busted as another 100,000 are being cut down as we speak to be shipped to the united states. Yeah its a huge grow, but busting one really isn't going to kill the supply and up the prices that much.

[Krunk]

Lets see what the government did here:

-ruin 6 people's lives
-cost mid-low level drug dealers $millions in profits that would more than likely shuffle back into the economy
-create a temporary insignificant shortage that will have no impact on demand


It seems the worst part about drugs is the legal consequences attached to them.

[bongobongo]

ruined 6 peoples lives man, couldnt be more with you on that one.


the stress caused by this is way more then the actual harm it did to the society. I just dont see how they think by busting this grow op they are saving peoples lives and shit.

direct link to organized crime? shit dude, i hardly think that, even given its massive quantity, that itd be THAT hard to get rid of the shit in a months time if not less. theres just too many people smoking the shit at such a high rate....

they even said it themselves, 2 joints for every person in BC, 2 joints would what, last me a day? and figure half the people smoke, so thats 4 joints a day... and in a week your smoking like 25 lets see (shooting the numbers low)... id be dissapointed and suprised if there isnt operations double or triple the size of this one.

[Captain Cannabis]

though this was a sizable bust, i doubt this will have a noticeable effect on supply in b.c.

[Smaerd]

CC I'm sure half of those were going to the US anyhow haha.

[Captain Cannabis]

operations this large are rare, but its the sheer number of medium sized grow ops that power the industry. they can bust lots of them and theres still so many more left that it has basically no impact.