Two Lower Mainland men have been sentenced to two years less a day of house arrest for their roles in running the largest marijuana grow operation police have uncovered in Vanderhoof's history.
Crown prosecution had been seeking jail terms of 18 months to two years less a day for Gua Hua Ma, 32, and Chun Jie Kuang, 33, but Prince George provincial court judge Michael Brecknell agreed with defence lawyer Jason LeBlond's argument for conditional sentences.
Conditonal sentences allow the convicted to serve the term at home and continue working but remain subject to curfews and other limits on when they can be outside the house.
Brecknell's decision came down to the fact that Ma and Kuang have no criminal records. In contrast, a third man who was arrested at the scene on Jan. 25, 2011, Kam Hub Lam, 54, was sentenced in March to three years in jail after it was found that he was serving a 15-month conditional sentence - effectively house arrest with a curfew - for a similar offence committed in March 2009.
In opting for conditional sentences, Brecknell said Ma and Kuang should consider themselves "extremely lucky" because as of November 6, the mandatory minimum is now three years in a federal penitentiary.
The culmination of a six-month investigation, police swooped in on a quarter section of rural property at 18876 Westwood about 20 kilometres outside Vanderhoof, where they arrested the three and seized 2,629 marijuana plants. Their value was estimated at $984,000 in pound form, rising to as much as $4.5 million in gram form and the operation was capable of producing three crops a year, adding up to as much as $13.5 million annually.
About 150 metres from the property's house, they found two buildings clad in plywood with metal roofs. The larger of the two, 70 metres long by 20 metres wide by four metres tall, housed three grow rooms and a storeroom. The smaller, measuring 25 by 10 metres, held an industrial generator and diesel fuel tanks.
Police had been tipped off to the operation in June 2010 when they and commercial vehicle enforcement officers pulled over a truck and trailer carrying 2,700 litres of diesel fuel and noticed a smell of marijuana in the cab.
Police had determined the 160 acre property was purchased for $308,700 in 2009 by V&M Farms Ltd. in turn owned by Hi Yan Ma of Vancouver. It was also estimated the generator would cost $100,000 brand new and the buildings and equipment undoubtedly cost tens of thousands of dollars.
"The grow operation was a highly-capitalized, professionally installed commercial operation but not as automated as some," Brecknell said, noting there were no automatic timers and watering systems and suggested hiring labour to tend the plants may have been less expensive for the owner.
Ma was born in China but is now a Canadian citizen who did not appear to be related to the property's owner, the court was told. He had lost his job as a truck driver and had been on the site for 10 days working as a gardener when police conducted the raid.
Huang is a landed immigrant who was at the location for three months, starting as a cook but eventually helping out with the plants. He had been promised $2,800 per month in salary but was never paid, the court heard, and agreed to work in the grow op in the hope he would eventually be paid. A sentence of more than two years less a day would have made him a candidate for deportation.
In statements to the court, given through a Cantonese intepreter during a sentencing hearing in October, the two expressed remorse for their actions saying they now realize the severity of the crimes they committed.
For the first year of their sentences, the two are limited to being outside the home for no more than three hours per day except when working and to a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew during the second year. Brecknell also ordered they write letters of apology to the area's residents and send them to the newspaper in Vanderhoof and they were each fined $2,000 plus a $300 victim surcharge to be paid off at $100 per month.
