Maple Ridge News, January 18, 2013

Page 1

Along the Fraser Idle, as if there is nothing to do. p6

Petition to save Silver Valley school site. p12

THE NEWS

Gardening A winter garden, fleeting canvas. p31

www.mapleridgenews.com Friday, January 18, 2013 · Serving Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows · est. 1978 · 604-467-1122 · 50¢

Ridge man wanted by U.S. DEA

Warren Hill convicted before for trafficking marijuana by M on i sh a M ar ti n s staff reporter

A Maple Ridge man convicted in Canada of trafficking marijuana is wanted south of the border for the same crime. The Drug Enforcement Agency has issued a warrant for Warren ‘Wardog’ Hill that remains active and accuses him of conspiring to import and distribute marijuana in the U.S. Jodie Underwood, a special agent with the DEA, confirmed that Hill is a “DEA fugitive.” “His apprehension has been delegated to the United States Marshal’s Service, which works closely with our foreign counterparts. Information pertaining to fugitive Hill is sealed by the court and, therefore, we are unable to provide any details.” Hill, 47, was convicted of trafficking pot in 2005 and sentenced to 30 months in prison.

Pitt pepped Renzo Gutierrez, in Grade 8, competes against other students in a dance contest called Take It All during a pep rally for all of the Pitt Meadows secondary basketball teams Wednesday at the school. Colleen Flanagan/THE NEWS

See Wanted, p14

Court fines Aquilinis $1,000 They also make $54,000 payment to habitat fund by P h i l M e l nychuk staff reporter

Special feature: FASD – A few drinks, a life changes. See stories, p3,4,5

An Aquilini company charged with illegally pumping water from the North Alouette River has been fined $1,000 and agreed to make a $54,000 payment to an environmental fund. The penalty was a joint submission from both sides in the case, prosecu-

tor Jim Macaulay said Thursday in Port Coquitlam provincial court. All charges laid in 2011 under the Fisheries Act and the Water Act – against Elisa, Francesco, Paulo and Roberto Aquilini, CPI - Cranberry Plantation, Global Coin Corp., other numbered companies and farm manager Richard Matis – have been dropped. Instead, only a guilty plea from a related numbered company, 374917 B.C. Ltd., to illegally pumping water under the Water Act, was entered. The charges stem from June 2009, when a water intake pipe was in-

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stalled into the river and water pumped, between a million and 1.5 million gallons, to keep a field of cranberry plants alive during a hot, dry spring. “There was no demonstrable, environmental damage as a result of this,” said Macaulay said. The disruption to the side channel of the North Alouette was “minimal,” he added. Golden Eagle Group, the umbrella company that’s part of the Aquilini Investment Group – which also owns the Vancouver Canucks – had applied for six water licences

in 2007. It needed approval from the City of Pitt Meadows to bring the pipe across the top of the dike. The city granted that approval, but authorization hadn’t come yet from the water stewardship division of the Ministry of Environment for the water licence. But a hot, dry summer made it imperative to get water on to young plants in May and June 2009. And the farm manager thought that the approval from the city to cross the dike was sufficient to allow installation of the pipe into the river. See Fine, p14

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