Cannabis: Ballarat’s $8m industry

Local police have busted 13 grow houses and more than 2400 cannabis plants in the last eight months. The grow houses – spread between Ballarat, Bacchus Marsh, Learmonth, Bannockburn and Rokewood – are set up in both rented and owned properties and tended to by young, often international, students who are paid cash-in-hand to procure the crops.

The wage is low and the risk is high, but there are many people willing to take the risk, police say. 

Ballarat’s divisional response unit Detective Senior Sergeant Darren Tanis said police were making new strategic efforts to monitor and shut down the growing industry. 

While Detective Senior Sergeant Tanis could not comment on this week's raids or ongoing operations and charges he said past arrests had shown patterns in how the grow houses operate.

Ballarat’s divisional response unit Detective Senior Sergeant Darren Tanis said a combination of Australian citizens, residents and international visitors were travelling from Melbourne’s western suburbs in the dead of the night to tend to the crops.

“Many of the house sitters have (previously) had minimal involvement or history with police. They are solely doing it for the cash wages,” Detective Senior Sergeant Tanis said.

The Courier’s analysis of court documents show an overwhelming number of Vietnam nationals have been prosecuted over a series of grow houses discovered in the Ballarat region over the past six months.

Police would not comment specifically on the nationally of offenders, but said “people of a wide variety of nationalities were being arrested”.

“There is significant criminal enterprise involved,” Detective Senior Sergeant Tanis said.

 “Significant criminals higher up the chain have been arrested, charged and convicted.

“There are people within the finance industry and the real estate industry.”

Cheaper rents in Ballarat and surrounding suburbs were tempting to growers whose primary purpose of establishing the grow houses was to generate quick profit to fund both international and local crime, he said.

“Grow houses are a metropolitan and regional issue. It’s an issue that is spilling from metropolitan Melbourne,” Detective Senior Sergeant Tanis said.

“There’s cheaper rent, cheaper housing and a belief that it is easier to blend in with the locals. These people rent and purchase the properties solely for cannabis cultivation.” 

Houses, both rented and purchased, are “quickly and randomly” converted into crop set-ups.

“These actions cause significant damage to the rental property and home. They re-wall the houses, they reline the rooms to prevent any visibility,” Detective Senior Sergeant Tanis said.

“The interior is totally destroyed.” 

Walls are artificially lined, lighting timers are installed and increasingly traps are set up for investigating police. 

“There is a propensity for offenders to set hazards for police attending – such as razor blades and fish hooks in the plants, live wires,” Detective Senior Sergeant Tanis said. 

“There is increasing hazards set for investigative police – certainly safety remains a major concern for police. 

Hundreds of lights are installed and the possibility of fires is high. 

“(Crop houses) are an extremely dangerous mix of live powers and watering systems. We have had multiple cannabis crop houses catch fire this year due to the supply pits overloading. 

“The vast majority (are run off) backyard electrical bypasses to avoid detection. One grow house will be utilizing sufficient energy to power eight normal houses.” 

Cannabis cultivated in 2016 is far stronger and more dangerous than the backyard weed of the 1960s, police warn. 

Chemicals are added and crops are grown from seedlings to fully matured plants in six weeks, half the 12 week period of a few years ago.

These added chemicals make both the set-up and the drugs more dangerous and harmful. 

“This is a large amount of cannabis being cultivated within very quick timeframes.

“These are plants on steroids,” Detective Senior Sergeant Tanis said.

“Chemicals and technology is increasingly used. They have halved the normal cultivation time and these chemicals, while enabling quick growth, are creating toxic plants that are certainly harmful to health.

“The cannabis being cultivated today is completely different from the cannabis of the 60s and the 70s. The DNA of the plant, the chemical is extremely strong. There is a far, far greater risk.” 

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They are not local and have often been running houses across the state and country, he said.

“The majority of our offenders that have been arrested and processed are from the western suburbs of Melbourne – they might rent or purchase a house in Melbourne.”

These owners recruit the young sitters through community connections.

“They look toward students or international community contacts – they may be on students visas or have a vistor visa,” Detective Senior Sergeant Tanis said.

Police do not believe the local market for cannabis is strong. Most of the locally grown crops end up in Melbourne or overseas. Ice remains the main drug on Ballarat's streets, police believe, but it is mainly made in outer-Melbourne suburbs or overseas. Police would not explicitly say if criminal groups were using proceeds from cannabis crops to purchase and distribute methamphetamine other drugs. 

“We believe the majority of the market if trafficked both within and outside of Australia. It is not local. There is an indication that it is grown as a commercial enterprise by criminal syndicates,” Detective Senior Sergeant Tanis said.

“Cannabis crop houses are found to be extremely profitable and they are able to use that income to fund other crimes.” 

Fairfax Media has previously reported that research shows Australia has one of the highest per capita consumption of cannabis in the world – a fact recognised by international crime syndicates keen to capitalise on consumer demand. Detectives know much of the money is reinvested in higher risk but greater reward illicit products such as heroin and ice, which is smuggled from Asia by a small army of couriers.

Cannabis houses continue to be a major focus for police who are targeting the criminal enterprises. The houses are also often targeted and robbed by other criminals who are after the crop. 

Police have urged any who notice unusual or uncharacteristic behaviour from their neighbours to contact police.

Grow houses are spread right across Ballarat, no suburbs are immune. Police have urged residents to take note if their neighbours do “random” and unusual renovations, arrive at odd hours and have lights come on in sync. 

“When we do bust a grow house most of the the time the neighbours say they suspected something, but they never reported it,” Senior Sergeant Tanis said.

Report any suspicious behaviour to Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.