The RCMP's grow-op pilot project was so successful, it gets to fly full time in the Cariboo.
The region from Prince George to 100 Mile House was so popular with organized crime for growing industrial-sized plantations of marijuana that the RCMP created a special team dedicated to Cariboo crops.
The one-year task force ran out of time this past autumn, but the results were so big it carried on past its mandate. On Friday, top policing officials gathered in Prince George to announce the team would carry on.
The new permanent team is called the North District Integrated Marijuana Enforcement task force (NDIME).
"From a policing perspective, the results that we have seen from the test project were very substantial," said Supt. Brian Cantera, in charge of the RCMP's Federal Drug Enforcement Branch.
During its 15 months of life, police raided 70 properties and intercepted almost 120,000 plants (11 tonnes altogether). So far, criminal charges have been laid against 78 people.
"It is dramatic. Eleven tonnes is a very significant contribution... Once you have this kind of momentum, you just have to see it continue," said Minister of Justice Shirley Bond, who announced a half-million dollars in annual funding for the team.
She also announced that NDIME personnel would be headquartered in the same building as the region's integrated anti-gang unit, because of the close connections between grow-ops and gangs.
"You know, these are not mom-and-pop operations, so we are sending the message to organized crime that we are going to keep the pressure on you no matter where you try to set up shop," she said.
The top Mountie in the region, Supt. Rod Booth of North District headquarters, said it was a great day for all local RCMP detachments who, prior to these provincially and federally funded task forces, were been forced to combat grow-ops and their attendant gangs largely on their own.
This gives general duty police officers more time for other files they are responsible for, for an additional positive public effect.
"We are clearly serving notice that organized crime groups are not welcome in the north district. I repeat, organized crime groups are not welcome in the north district," Booth said.
He added that "displacement is something we are alive to," so Mounties throughout the undercover and general duty police web would be watching to see where crooks frustrated by the Cariboo enforcement would try to work in next. "We are not dealing with this myopically," he insisted.
Cantera said that the success of the Cariboo special focus was having positive effects on the Lower Mainland as well.
Most of the scores of suspects arrested and gangs getting the money from northern grow-ops were rooted in the greater Vancouver area.
"The people arrested in the Cariboo are involved in all sorts of crime generally, so the impact of having those people charged is significant even for the Lower Mainland," Cantera said.
Bond added that the intelligence gathered from the Cariboo efforts, the curtailed cash flow, and the guns seized have led to lives already saved in British Columbia.
