There are reports that four police officers are dead after conducting a raid on a marijuana grow operation northwest of Edmonton.
A shootout reportedly broke out at a farmhouse in Rochfort Bridge near the community of Mayerthorpe, about 130 kilometres northwest of Edmonton. There was concern when the officers had failed to respond to their radios after conducting the raid.
Alberta Solicitor General Harvey Cenaiko says the officers were executing a search warrant when they were met with gunfire.
RCMP spokesman Cpl. Wayne Oakes confirms that the officers were conducting an investigation at a rural residence. He said there was reason to believe a lone male suspect was armed with a high-powered rifle.
A reporter on the scene claims that an RCMP officer has “punched” a CBC reporter.
update
CBC report
Background:
“The Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police estimates that the number of illegal grow-ops in this province has increased 250 per cent. Revenue could hit $12.7 billion.”
Realty Times – How can you tell if there’s a grow-op house in your neighbourhood.
More details are emerging – this was not a raid, per se, but the intentional killing of four junior officers who had been posted to guard the property until evidence gathering could be completed in the morning. The owner returned to the scene to, for all intents and purposes, execute them.
Colby Cosh has more on the lengthy criminal background on the killer, James Roszko. The notion that grow-ops are run by “agrarian” peace and love hippies is false. Marijuana production in Canada is an industry of hard core criminals and organized crime, complete with the usual trappings of weaponry, booby traps, attack dogs.
