POT BUSTS PUT CRIMP IN MARIJUANA HARVEST

It's harvest time for Essex County's marijuana cultivators.

A string of recent pot busts in the county can be attributed in part
to weed growers picking their mature crop, say police, who expect more
busts as the fall progresses.

"Farmers are starting to work their fields ... so are people who grow
marijuana," said Leamington police Const. Kevin O'Neil.

The latest pot bust occurred early Tuesday morning on Highway 77 north
of Leamington. O'Neil said Leamington police arrested a 25-year-old
local man after three 13-foot marijuana plants were discovered in the
trunk of his 1998 Dodge Stratus during a routine traffic stop.

"When the police stopped the car, the passenger fled," said O'Neil.
That aroused the officers' suspicions, said O'Neil, as did a pot leaf
lodged in the driver's shoe. Police searched the driver and found 47
grams of marijuana in his pants pocket.

"Then they obtained a search warrant for the trunk and found the
mature plants," said O'Neil. He pegged the plants' street value at
$6,000. The 25-year-old has been charged with narcotics possession for
the purpose of trafficking. He's scheduled to appear in court in
Leamington Oct.7. O'Neil said police are still searching for the
passenger who bolted from the Stratus.

Essex OPP Const. Deb Mineau also cited pot harvesting season at a news
conference Wednesday as she displayed about 140 pounds of packaged
marijuana seized from the back of a van parked near the Sandbar Marina
in Lakeshore Monday night. The pot would be worth more than $1.2
million on the street, she said.

In that case, Andri Kryshtanovych, a 32-year-old Windsor man, has been
charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking.

Last Thursday, Leamington police raided a Clark Street home and found
a mature marijuana crop worth more than $35,000 in the back yard. The
plot was guarded by bells, booby-traps and a pit bull. On Aug. 27 OPP
arrested eight people after raids at homes in Lakeshore and east
Windsor netted more than 12 pounds of marijuana worth $60,000.

Both O'Neil and Mineau said the rash of busts were typical of the fall
in Essex County. "It's the pattern we see most years," said O'Neil.