Staff
An RCMP raid on a former pig farm west of Rimbey last Monday has resulted in the seizure of what could have been a multi-million dollar marijuana grow operation.
According to Rimbey RCMP Const. Daniel Kenny of the local Detachment, electrical workers had been dispatched to the location about 19 km west of Rimbey on Range road 44 to replace a blown transformer, which they believed had been struck by lightning.
Once they opened the transformer’s box however, they knew exactly what had caused the blow-out and immediately called police.
“On Aug. 10 we received a call from a power supply company for a property west of Rimbey advising that they were stealing power on the property,” said Kenny, who was part of the raid. “With that, and the assistance of the Green Team in Red Deer, a search warrant was obtained for the theft of power and during the search a very significant and sophisticated grow operation was found.”
Once that discouvery was made, the RCMP immediately sought and received a second search warrant and initiated another search of the property and seized 2,325 plants in various stages of development, along with marijuana production equipment with a combined value of $30,000. They also determined that half of the crop had been harvested already and moved from the site. Had all the seized plants reached maturity, police believe the entire crop, including the other half, would have been valued at several million dollars on the street.
“With each mature plant valued at approximately $1,000, that’s almost $2.4 million worth of marijuana right there,” Kenny said. “If we had the other half, you’re looking at a $5 million operation they had going on at this property.”
As for the common practice of stealing power to mask grow operations, Kenny said it’s almost automatic that authorities suspect illegal activities are underway.
“Right away it clicks that something seems odd. You have this pig farm that’s no longer in use and it’s stealing power,” he said. “Even if it was a functioning farm, what do you really need to steal power for and why would you risk doing that? These kind of operations do that to avoid detection through us with excessive power use.”
According to Kenny, information gathered at the farm site resulted in two more raids the following day in Red Deer however in both cases nothing illegal was found. A number of people were questioned in connection to the grow-op including one male who was arrested, but charges were later dropped.
Police have now turned their attention to a 28-year-old male also of Red Deer is being sought for offences in relation to alleged theft of electrical power, production of a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance for the purposes of trafficking.
“With these types of things they (growers) don’t usually live on the property. They just sort of sit and monitor the grow-op, take care of the plants and whatever maintenance stuff they do, but they don’t live there,” Kenny said. “Usually they live somewhere else and come in for a quick visit, do their thing and leave.”
Police also seized a number of farm animals at the site due to neglect on the part of the owner. Those animals included sheep, ducks and llama, all of which have been transported to another area farm for care.
According to the RCMP, on average a fully mature marihuana plant is capable of producing enough product to manufacture up to 500 joints. If all plants seized at this operation matured to produce the average yield the total production could have yielded approximately 1,162,500 joints or marijuana cigarettes.