IT'S HARVEST TIME FOR QUEBEC'S DRUG SQUADS

Operation Cisaille. Police Across Province Swoop Down on Pot
Plantations, Seize 37,000 Plants

Police officers across the province rolled up their sleeves and went
trudging through fields yesterday in the search for illegal marijuana
plantations.

The Surete du Quebec, whose goal was to make sure police got to the
autumn pot crop before it found its way onto the streets, called the
2004 edition of Operation Cisaille (Operation Shears) a success.

The annual harvest netted provincial police and their partners more
than 37,000 plants. Police arrested 32 people, mainly growers and
guards. A final tally is expected to be available today, said
Constable Chantal Mackels, a Surete spokesperson.

In 2003, Operation Cisaille netted police 45,149 pot plants and four
firearms, and resulted in 29 arrests, mainly of people guarding
marijuana fields.

Lt. Jean Audette, a SQ specialist on drugs, said police were not
looking to set any records, although the numbers of seizures and
police officers involved were twice as high as in 2003.

"It's not the objective we're looking for but it was a good day,"
Audette said. "The number of sites visited has doubled, as well as the
number of police officers have doubled."

Audette said more staff is necessary now that the number of grow
operations is increasing - with a smaller quantity of plants at each
site. Still, police find themselves going to the same spots every
year: farmers' fields, forests and greenhouses.

Most of the people arrested yesterday were either guarding the grow
operations or were in charge of them. Organized crime continues to
control distribution, Audette said.

In addition to the plants, an additional 14 kilograms of marijuana
were confiscated yesterday as police conducted 246 seizures - most of
them in empty fields or growing operations on farmers' fields. In all,
943 police officers from 23 municipal forces, the RCMP and the SQ
participated, as did a Canadian military helicopter, Mackels said.

While yesterday was Cisaille's big one-day assault, operations go on
all year, Audette said.

Constable Jayson Gauthier, an SQ spokesperson, said more and more
individuals are calling in with tips that help police dismantle many
grow sites.

Police estimate 100 marijuana plants are enough to supply 1,000 people
with a joint a day for a month. "So you can see that 37,000 plants is
a sizeable amount," Audette said.