NWI Insights - Marijuana grow operations expand to the Calgary suburbs

Last week a story on NWI by David Gray of the CBC reported on the development of a disturbing new trend in Calgary, Canada's fastest expanding city. Many new communities have sprung up on the outskirts of Calgary and with them has come organized crime in particular the development of large scale marijuana grow operations. There are an estimated 2000 grow operations happening and police are scrambling to crack down on as many as possible.

In the suburbs, Gray reports that the grow operations are professional businesses whereby UV light, exact fertilizer quantities and carbon dioxide are all utilized to ensure that marijuana plants develop into what is said to be some of the best weed available. The police are trying to track the operations and have found that houses with the following conditions, increases in power surges, no snow on the roof in winter, blinds drawn all year around, and condensation on the sidings show a strong likelihood of the presence of a grow operation. Many of these houses are owned by numbered companies who are ultimately behind the illegal trade.

Gray explains that Canada's marijuana trade is booming and that British Columbia's (BC) marijuana is highly sought after and thought to perhaps be the strongest in the world, ten times the strength of that used in the 1970s. In San Francisco, two bags of BC marijuana can be exchanged for 1 bag of cocaine, and a single bag of the strong stuff is going for US $8000.

With such vast sums of money involved, a battle for control has begun in Calgary, asserts Gray. In the last six months there have been numerous gun fights, drive by shootings and a new reality has hit the quiet suburbs.

Calgary Police Chief Jack Beaton stated that the recent events are the result of organized crime in the area. Police have begun anti-gang groups to try and break up the turf wars but this does not reach the core of the problem. The people essentially behind the grow operations live a low profile suburban lifestyle and thus it is very hard to incriminate these individuals in the activities.

The Calgary police have turned to the experience of the British Columbian police where the marijuana grow operations first found their home. According to Robert Gordon, a former police officer turned criminologist, the source of the problem can be found in Vancouver where the business began. He says that people always want what they have restricted access to and this includes drugs. He states that the grow operations are professionally run businesses backed by organized crime. Since September 11th, he asserts, the BC border has become much more heavily guarded whereas the Alberta crossing still remains easier to pass into the US, plus Alberta has lower taxes and at present less police presence.

In British Columbia the police have become more successful in dealing with the organized crime behind the grow operations. However the groups which are mainly Vietnamese with a recent influx of mainland Chinese into some sections of the operations, are still running an estimated $5 billion business. If this is the case it makes marijuana growing BC's third largest industry behind logging and tourism, states Gray.

The system operates whereby twenty or thirty roads are controlled by 2 people. It is these individuals which need to be targeted by police not the gangs, explains Gordon. More recently the different groups have started working together which makes the police task even more difficult. There are thought to be 26,000 grow groups in Vancouver alone. Gordon contends that when the police do find and shut down the grow groups it simply shifts the price of marijuana higher further enticing groups to continue running the illegal operations.

This extract forms part of just one of the many insightful news features presented on the 24 hour news network Newsworld International (NWI). If you would like further information or are interested in subscribing to NWI, visit their website at www.nwitv.com or telephone their subscription service on 1-800-280-4388.

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