'POT PIRATES' WORRY POLICE

KAWARTHA LAKES - Cops are growing increasingly concerned over
sometimes not being the only ones armed and wearing police uniforms.

An increase in the number of marijuana crops found this year guarded
by 'pot pirates' wielding high-powered firearms and using booby traps
has provincial police worried about public safety and their own.

City of Kawartha Lakes OPP found out just what that's like when they
encountered a gun-toting male at a $5-million grow operation south of
Bobcaygeon on Sept. 11. The man fled into the heavily-forested area
near Pigeon Lake Road and no arrest was ever made.

"It's disturbing to us that people are not only growing this illegal
substance but they are also taking steps to defend their crops," said
Const. Mark Boileau, media relations officer for the local detachment.

A multi-billion dollar business, suspects will go to all extremes to
protect their venture, or to steal someone else's, he said.

"When you are talking 5,000 plants, that's $5 million," he said.

In another situation where police came across a grow op east of
Carnarvon in Haliburton County to the north, they also found more
than they bargained for. The suspects, who would eventually be
arrested and then processed in Lindsay, were found with bullet proof
vests and hand guns.

Officers have seized every weapon imaginable at grow ops from machine
guns to assault rifles, to detonator cords and blasting caps, police said.

In 2006, OPP destroyed some 138,993 marijuana plants and investigated
or discovered 450 indoor and outdoor grows.

Over 20,000 plants alone were seized outdoors by the Kawartha
Combined Drug Forces Unit, which works in the Kawartha Lakes and
Peterborough and Northumberland county via OPP, Port Hope and
Kawartha Lakes Police.

That number does not include the around 5,000 plants found at the
Bobcaygeon-area grow, the largest crop found in the City of Kawartha
Lakes this season, Boileau said.

Some 7,868 plants were found by the unit in a two-week span alone
when they enlisted the help of a helicopter.

With winter fast approaching, officers will now continue to act on
information as the focus turns to indoor grow operations and drug
trafficking, Boileau said.

The public can also play a vital role in spotting illegal activity, he said.

Clues could be suspicious activity at a house such as strange
vehicles, windows covered in heavy materials, unusual odours, suspect
electrical upgrades and even just seeing things like lamps or
fertilizer being taken inside, Boileau said.