HASH OIL BURNS HOME

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HASH OIL BURNS HOME


Parents Cooked Drugs, Not Breakfast For Kids


At a time when many people would be cooking bacon and eggs, a North End couple spent their Saturday morning making something a little less traditional. A kitchen fire broke out about 9 a.m. Saturday in a house at 122 Burrows Ave. as the residents, parents of four young children, were cooking drugs on the stove.


"These parents, rather than feeding these kids breakfast, are cooking hash oil on the stove, and that's simply unacceptable," said Const.


Shelly Glover, a spokeswoman for the Winnipeg Police Service.


"There is obviously a concern that these children were placed in grave danger."


The resin-extraction process caused the kitchen to go up in flames.


The couple rushed their four children, age one to 10, outside and no one was hurt.


But when the fire department came and put out the blaze, firefighters discovered a marijuana grow operation in one of the bedrooms.


COUPLE CHARGED


They seized grow equipment and 35 marijuana plants with an estimated street value of $41,000.


The couple, a 30-year-old woman and a 28-year-old man, face charges of drug possession and trafficking. They have been released on promises to appear.


"I figured something not so terrific was going on in that place," said area resident Larice Sych, who said the couple had lived in the house at the end of Burrows Avenue along the Red River about a year. "It's a terrible problem house."


"I saw people going in and out of there all the time," said area resident Carrie Anderson. "I thought maybe they had lots of relatives who visited them."


Alvin Crozier, who also lives nearby, said the news that the house was a grow operation was no shock in a neighbourhood that has its share of bad seeds.


"Around here it doesn't surprise me, unfortunately," he said. "I'd like it out of the area completely, but unfortunately I don't think it's going to change."


The fire was confined to the kitchen, but caused $60,000 in damage.


The marijuana grow operation does not appear to be related to other grow ops busted recently that were linked to Asian organized crime, said Glover.