Police responding to a domestic dispute call this weekend in Kelowna, B.C., instead found a home-grown marijuana operation worth an estimated $1.7 million.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, RCMP officers arrived at a home in the 1600-block of McNaughton Road in West Kelowna after neighbours reported gunshots and the sound of screaming.
When they arrived, however, they discovered the two-storey home was empty -- except for more than 1,700 marijuana plants. According to police, an average marijuana plant yields about $1,000 worth of product.
Police also discovered a bag of dried marijuana and an electrical bypass that had been hooked up to allow the drug operation to avoid detection.
Const. Steve Holmes, spokesman for the Kelowna RCMP, told ctvbc.ca that the grow-op is one of the largest local police have found in a private home.
"It's abnormally large," he said.
Holmes added that he was unable to speculate if the grow-op was an independent operation or connected to organized crime.
"What I can say it that it's too large for someone to be growing it for their own use."
Investigators have yet to locate the residents of the home or arrest any suspects.
