GROWING FEAR

'Pot Pirates' Are Injecting A Terrifying Twist To The Marijuana
Industry In Cottage Country

HALIBURTON, Ont. -As the trees change from green to red and orange
along Highway 400, city dwellers make fewer weekend treks hours north
of Toronto, through winding country roads, into the heart of cottage country.

The seasonal holidaymakers are replaced instead by the criminals
involved in outdoor marijuana growops who each year descend upon the
region's remote swampland, fields and forests to harvest their crop,
but who this year are behind levels of violence so unprecedented that
it has residents and cottagers thoroughly frightened.

"It's a secluded place. If you wanted to do anything illegal, this is
the place to do it," said Colin Turner of Harcourt Park, a private
8,000-acre cottage community near Haliburton. Late last month, police
made residents stay indoors during a cottage drug bust that turned up
two improperly stored long guns and a handgun. "You never think it's
going to be right on your back doorstep," Mr. Turner said.

Biker gangs, Asian gangs and other criminals have operated a
lucrative drug industry in cottage country for years, but police say
a violent new trend is emerging: criminals stealing from other
criminals' grow-ops.

"What we are dealing with is pot pirates -- individuals who scour the
area and identify grows and take plants at any cost, with no regard
for public safety," said Detective-Sergeannt Dean Steinke of the
Kawartha Lakes Combined Forces Drug Enforcement Unit.

On Oct. 5, two contractors working for the Ministry of Natural
Resources driving ATVs on a trail near Minden came upon three armed
and masked men dragging bags of harvested marijuana out of the bush.
The contractors were taken hostage and tied up with their own belts
- -- one was pistol-whipped -- while the assailants took their
identification and stole their ATVs. That same afternoon, four others
using the trail were similarly stopped, tied up, and forced to lie
face down on the ground.

"It was a hostage scenario. These guys kept them in their custody for
over three hours," Det. Sgt. Steinke said. "These guys are brutal and
dangerous. They have no problem dealing with civilians, stealing
their ATVs, tying them up and beating them."

When Haliburton police arrived at the scene, they found 1,800 pounds
of marijuana left behind in bags and another grow-op in a nearby
swamp, worth a total of $3.5-million.

While those operating grow-ops have been known to steal ATVs from
private properties, these recent incidents are the first time that
officers have encountered such a degree of violence toward innocent people.

Residents in the area, which lies north of Lake Simcoe and south of
Algonquin Park and is a picturesque mix of small residential clusters
dotted around countryside and myriad lakes, have been caught by surprise.

"This is basically a tourist destination where it's been safe for
years," said Pauline Johnson, a resident of Carnarvon, a small town
near Minden, and an avid ATV user. "We all know these things
[grow-ops] are up here. But certainly we don't expect the violence
associated with it."

These pot pirates are only the newest part of a growing problem of
violence among growers intent on protecting their precious
cottage-country crops. Det. Sgt. Steinke's unit seized 2,500 plants
in 2002, but in 2004 they eradicated 30,000. So far this year, they
have carried out 105 search warrants on properties known to grow or
process marijuana and other drugs.

This fall, police have found marijuana in cornfields and on Crown
land, and have raided private cottages processing drugs. Det. Sgt.
Steinke said a fellow officer even found rogue pot plants that had
been planted on his own property.

"There's so many people scared up here right now," said a man who
lives and operates a business in nearby Eagle Lake, and who
identified himself only as John for fear of retribution from biker
gangs that have threatened him.

"These guys put fear in me. If they can't get you, they'll get your
family," he said.

Det. Sgt. Steinke said the problem is not simply biker gangs but that
marijuana thieves are becoming more daring overall, braving booby
traps and guarded crops.

Last fall, five police from the Kawartha Lakes drug unit arrived at
an outdoor grow-op targeted as part of a crackdown and found a large
group of men on the scene stealing plants.

"Twenty-one people went into the bush from every ethnic group,
working together to steal someone else's grow," said Det. Sgt.
Steinke. "They were armed and wore bulletproof vests." Police
initially intercepted a dozen of the thieves and caught the rest of
them throughout the evening.

Det. Sgt. Steinke said the risk of getting caught or even killed is
worth the reward for those growing and stealing marijuana. "Canada is
responsible for a $7-to $10-billion industry with 75% to 85% of
marijuana going to the U.S.," he said.

In late September, police ended a four-month investigation dubbed
Project Lynx by busting a $200-million operation based out of Port
Perry that processed marijuana and other drugs from Port Perry,
Oshawa, Whitby, Toronto, Haliburton, Bracebridge and the City of
Kawartha Lakes.

"Cottage country is prime; there's more water and swampland than
there are roads," said Det. Sgt. Steinke.

He said he does not have enough staff to deal with the problem, and
laments that the court sentences imposed on offenders are not strong
enough to deter the crimes.

For residents like John, the violence has them contemplating a move
out of this bucolic area.

"You know there's a problem when you feel unsafe on your own property," he said.