Quesnel Drug Team Determined To Win War

By Michelle Cyr-Whiting

Quesnel, B.C. - They're battling a proliferation of marijuana grow ops with very few resources, but the two-member Quesnel RCMP Drug section has met with much success in recent months...

Police say the majority of the operations are linked to Asian organized crime out of the Lower Mainland -- and they want to serve notice that Quesnel is not open for business.

In an interview following news of the raids on Rawlings Road, NCO of the Quesnel Drug Section, Corporal Luiz Sardinha, spoke candidly about ramped up efforts to shutdown these illegal operations.  While the section has just two members, Sardinha says they're reinforced on raids by members of the Quesnel GIS Unit, general duty officers and the Prince George Dog Section.

"(The Rawlings Road raids are) our 10th or 11th, we've done here in the last six months and, just this year alone, we've done five already and we have more on our list." 

Sardinha says, as far as a dollar value, "I'd have to sit down and break it down, but we're talking millions of dollars in street value, alone, and the equipment that we're seizing is hundreds of thousands of dollars."

He says, while most of the raids are linked to Asian crime gangs, it's many different cells.  "A lot of these cells are also linked to the Williams Lake and 100-Mile House areas, as well."

"They're coming up here and they're buying properties -- anything they can get their hands on -- and they're usually rural properties with pretty fair size houses with basements or outdoor shops," says Sardinha.  "And they're just changing them all over into marijuana grows."

The Corporal says the attraction is three-fold:  property is cheaper, the rural areas afford a privacy not found down south, and they're not having to deal with 'being ripped' -- having their marijuana stolen by rival gang members.  Sardinha says the same holds true for communities throughout the Cariboo, Central Interior and into the Peace Region.

But Sardinha says the climate is becoming less hospitable in Quesnel -- people are starting to question why their new neighbours live on a farm when they're not farmers and don't have any animals.  "So we tip our hats off to the community -- they're standing up, they're saying we don't want these people growing marijuana in our community."

"They're scared, you know," the officer says.  "When they hear it's organized crime -- 'cause that's what it is -- they're terrified."

Sardinha admits he's concerned it will only be a matter of time before 'ripping' is added into the mix and inter-rival gang violence begins. "We're trying to nip it in the bud, here, in our town."

"Like I say, we have a huge list and we're just knocking them off one at a time, as we go through it."

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