Realtor/Herbalist?

In case you're wondering how to keep the income rolling in during a slow real estate market ...

Tammy Wing Yan Tsui, 31, a Realtor for Macdonald Realty Westmar in Richmond, British Columbia, and her husband were arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and charged with growing marijuana for sale. The charges relate to a seizure of 1,126 marijuana plants from one home and 584 plants from an apartment.

A criminologist at the University College of the Fraser Valley who studies so-called "grow-ops" in British Columbia, said it's not surprising to see Realtors involved with grow-ups, according to a news report by Canada's The Province newspaper. "I would say they would know where most of the best properties are that could hold the grow. If you are a Realtor who is sort of connected to growers, you would also be mindful of what would be the most suitable property that would be exposed to the least likelihood of detection. Some Realtors seem to have a disproportionate number of grows related to their sales records."

In September 2006, Inman News reported that a mortgage broker in British Columbia was sentenced to a year in jail "for submitting forged documents with loan applications, some of which were used to buy homes that were used in indoor marijuana-growing operations"

Also that month, Inman News reported that Kevin Parker, a real estate agent with Prudential California Realty who was a "top producer" in 2005 at the company's Antioch office, reportedly had acted as a buyer's agent for 16 homes in the Sacramento, Calif., area that were allegedly converted for use in marijuana-growing operations. Parker had told a Sacramento-area news station that he was "shocked" to hear about drug raids at the homes and the homes' use in growing marijuana.

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