Drug gangs hire 'crop sitters'

[Chemical Shaman]

Drug gangs hire 'crop sitters'

By Kara Lawrence

January 13, 2005

ORGANISED crime syndicates are opening franchises across suburban Sydney, renting out houses and installing "crop sitters" to tend to hydroponic cannabis plantations.

Raid ... police yesterday seized plants worth more than $600,000. Picture: Justin Lloyd

The burgeoning industry, imported from Canada about three years ago, has seen an increase in sophistication and yield of the illegal crops.

Police figures show that in 2004 in metropolitan Sydney, at least 70 "hydro houses" were busted by police, who are throwing more resources into tackling the trend.

Statewide, the number of detections of hydro houses last year increased more than six-fold from 2003.

At 2am yesterday, police stumbled across a sophisticated and elaborate hydro house in a quiet Ashfield street.

Upon entering the brick house in Elizabeth St, Ashfield, after an anonymous phone call from someone checking on the occupant's welfare, police discovered all four bedrooms packed with cannabis plants.

The rooms had white tarpaulin rigged to the windows, extractor fans to eradicate the smell and 1000W lighting rigged from the ceiling.

Large fertiliser containers were scattered in the kitchen and the bathroom, where an irrigation pump had been installed to water the plants.

To provide power for the cultivation, an electricity bypass had been rigged up so the house was stealing electricity from the street.

This method is used to avoid attracting the attention of authorities by large "spikes" on power bills.

Police are searching for an Australian man of Vietnamese descent who is believed to have tended the operation.

Ashfield police seized 305 plants with an estimated street value of more than $600,000.

South-East Asian Crime Squad commander Detective Superintendent Debbie Wallace said police were pursuing the leaders of syndicates, who were setting up the houses.

She said some "crop sitters" were acting individually but there were also criminal syndicates involved.

The sitters - who often received a cut of the profits - were attracted by the easy money but risked substantial fines and/or jail for their part in the cultivation.

She said New South Wales Police were working with police in Canada, who had said Australians of Vietnamese background had visited Vancouver and been trained how to run drug houses.

The Daily Telegraph

[2b]

I heard that they show up well with infrared thermal type cameras (the sort they look for people lost in the ocean or at the snow )that they have in the police helicopter. The whole house just glows red , unless you had aircon going flat out to cool the light down.

[simon_marklar]

i moved out of a house because my housemate wanted to set up a grow room (i could see it getting out of hand... and it did)

someone dobbed him in and the cops came in full riot gear. apparently when my friend opened the door he was immediatly shoved to the ground and had guns put to his head and the like, and then he was questioned about 'traps'.

apparently there are some full on traps put into grow houses, like, floors that fall away into a pit of spikes, one had a spike that fell down when you opened a door, and there was other full on shit. not sure why the cops were telling him this tho...

moral of the story is, if you find a grow house in your travels, be careful, it might turn out to be "raiders of the lost bud' not to mention the bored as hell/paranoid as crop sitter with a gun pointed at a the door

%simon

[nabraxas]

this has been a recurring "news" story for years.

not to mention the bored as hell/paranoid as crop sitter with a gun pointed at a the door

reminds me ov "lock stock & 2 smoking barrels"

--"what'dya shoot 'im wiv? an air rifle ?"

[The Dude]

haha just watched that movie the other day. If all growers are as weak as that cops have nothing to worry about then with traps.

[BorgFace]

Some people have a piss poor attitude.

I would never, under any circumstances, include traps near a crop for the implicit reason of harming another human.

That is, if I had a crop

[cookie-monster]

Booby trapping a crop cant give a good result. Once some thieving prick has your crop in their sight it is gone one way or another. Traps will lead to police and heavy duty charges. It is a simple reality that you will probably know the maggot or who sent them. A discreet camera hooked to your video will let you know who did it and then you can exact your punishment at a time and venue of your choice and maybe recover your goods already picked and trimmed for you.

Don't get mad -- Get even!

[Dodie]

i heard some time over in the uk in winter all the cops had too do was jump in a helicopter and look at all the attics where the snow was all mealted....

[Poobah]

with warehouse space being so cheap to rent at the moment you wonder why they (growers) dont just go into industrial complex underground .

not that i want to encourage illegal acts but

no noisy neighbours and so what if there is heat and light coming out of an industrial complex.

and simons right booby traps ? or some crazy paranoid housesitter with a gun in a normal dense street can only end up goin bad .

[Rev]

ha

warehouse space or office space

imagine a whole office floor refitted

make a reception area for unexpected viistors and access to the grow room by security tag/cards/punch in password etc

nutes and equipmnet in bu dudes with delivery uniforms. technicians come and go in suits with briefs

all that space and electricity and ducted air conditioning

[Torsten]

Poobah - they've been doing this for years. When I last lived in melbourne in 1990 a warehousenear my flat got raided for exactly this.

These sorts of projects always fail because of snitches not because of 'intelligence'.