Five people busted late Thursday in a massive marijuana grow operation near Veteran reserved their pleas on drug charges Friday in Red Deer court.
Cpl. Erik Holmberg of Consort RCMP said several police units bust the operation and seized more than 3,300 plants, as well as other items on the property.
Police didn’t release the street value of the drugs but estimated they would yield between 1.3 million to 2.3 million marijuana cigarettes.
The street value would be about $4 million, based on a similar bust last week near Sundre. In the Sundre bust, police seized more than 2,100 plants, which were valued at $2.6 million by RCMP.
Coronation RCMP were assisted by units from RCMP in Edmonton the RCMP helicopter team, Red Deer and Edmonton emergency response teams, forensic identification members, Edmonton gang unit police officers and a RCMP dog team.
Holmberg said all five suspects, including one woman, are charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking marijuana and production of marijuana.
The accused, who remain in custody, return to Red Deer court on Tuesday.
The charges couldn’t be read Friday because one of the accused doesn’t speak English. A Vietnamese interpreter was ordered to be appointed for Tuesday by Judge David Plosz.
Charged are Van Tran, 49, of Surrey, B.C., Xuan Dinh, 48, of Ontario, Long Tran, 53, and Hung Truong, 49, both of Vancouver, and Thai Pham, 50, of no fixed address.