TORONTO POLICE UNCOVER $30 MILLION WORTH OF POT

BARRIE, Ont. (CP) -- A marijuana "factory" concealed within a
sprawling old brewery just steps from one of Ontario's busiest
highways is proof Canada's pot problem has reached "epidemic
proportions," police said Monday.

The former Molson brewery in Barrie, Ont., plainly visible from
Highway 400, one of the province's busiest commuter routes, was raided
on the weekend by some 100 city and provincial police officers acting
on a tip.

Inside, police found marijuana with what they said had an estimated
street value of $30 million, along with a grow operation of staggering
proportions -- the largest and most sophisticated in modern Canadian
history.

"This is not a ma-and-pa operation," Barrie police Chief Wayne
Frechette wryly told a news conference in this central Ontario city an
hour's drive north of Toronto.

Across a 5,400-square metre complex the size of a football field,
police found more than 25,000 pot plants growing everywhere -- even
inside the cavernous indoor vats once used to brew beer.

Molson closed the brewery in 2000 and sold it to a company that leases
space to about half a dozen businesses. The other companies included
trucking companies and a bottling company, police said.

A police video shot shortly after the raid showed the vats teeming
with marijuana plants and an elaborate electrical room where hydro was
used to power the lights that facilitate the growing process.

Huge drawers, used to spread harvested marijuana out to allow it to
dry, were seen in the video, each one brimming with buds.

"This particular marijuana factory is the largest and most
sophisticated I'm aware of in Canada," said provincial police deputy
commissioner Vaughn Collins.

"Commercial marijuana operations have reached epidemic proportions in
Ontario; they are in every community and most are controlled by
organized crime."

The facility was set up to operate 24 hours a day and included living
quarters capable of housing as many as 50 people at once, said OPP
Det. Staff Sgt. Rick Barnum.

"These areas . . .included common areas with beds, televisions,
fridges and stoves similar to dormitory-type facilities," Barnum said.

Marijuana grown in Canada is routinely shipped to the U.S., Collins
said.

"Much of Ontario marijuana is destined for U.S. markets, and it's
often traded for cocaine brought back into Canada."

Frechette, who cited the "big-box" operation as an example of how
marijuana has allowed organized crime to penetrate Canadian
communities, urged the public to be vigilant and watch for "suspicious
activities."

Nine people were charged, eight of them with one count each of
production of a controlled substance and possession for the purpose of
trafficking.

A second grow house was also discovered Sunday just north of the city.
Investigators seized more than 30,000 marijuana plants from the two
locations.

The brewery operation is almost certainly not the only one of its
scale in Canada, law enforcement officials warned.

"Just because we have not stumbled on them ... doesn't mean they're
not there," said RCMP Chief Supt. Raf Souccar, the force's
director-general of drugs and organized crime.

"The risk is low, the profit is high, deterrence is not there, so it
makes it an attractive proposition."

Police estimate there are some 15,000 illegal marijuana grow
operations in Ontario.

But operations like the one in Barrie are not commonplace, insisted
Alan Young, a prominent Toronto lawyer best known for his work as a
marijuana advocate and activist.

Young, who insisted that most marijuana cultivated in Canada is grown
on a small scale for personal use, accused police of trumpeting their
discovery in Barrie in an effort to sway Ottawa away from
decriminalization.

"This really was a lucky find for the police and they'll exploit it to
gain greater support."