22 GROW-OPS IN ONE HIGHRISE

Police Say 'Filthy' Apartments Were Potential Fire Threats

When Toronto's drug-squad detectives arrived at an apartment building
on Jane St. just north of Sheppard Ave. W. yesterday morning armed
with search warrants for five apartments, they knew they'd have a busy day.

But nothing prepared them for what they found when they started
searching the other apartments in the building.

By 6 p.m. yesterday, stunned detectives had uncovered a $6.6 million
marijuana grow-operation with some 6,600 plants being grown in 22 apartments.

The grow-ops, scattered throughout nine floors of 2600 Jane St. - a
13-storey building with roughly 117 units on the northwest corner of
a busy intersection anchored by strip-mall businesses and the
Jane-Sheppard Mall - is one of the largest discovered in Toronto.

"From what we can tell, they all appear to be built the same way,"
said Det. Sgt. Dave Malcolm of the Toronto police drug squad. "They
all appear to be soil-based, they all appear to be filthy and they
all appear to be fire threats."

By the time officers finished breaking down doors with battering
rams, they'd tallied a massive operation in apartments from the
fourth to 12th floors.

Police believe the operation has been in place for one year.

They say an "Asian-Canadian" group is involved in the operation. So
far two men have been arrested, but police are remaining tight-lipped
about their connection, if any, with the group.

Investigators today will continue examining every rental agreement in
the building to find out who rented the apartments, Malcolm said.

No one was living in the two-bedroom units. Police say growers had
planted about 300 plants in each unit, unplugging the ovens and using
the 220-volt outlets to power 1,000-watt grow lights.

The plants were grown in pots and toxic fertilizer was strewn across
the various apartments.

"It's a soil-based operation, not a true hydroponic grow," Malcolm
said. "It's not a matter of if there's going to be a fire, it's a
matter of when."

A rough calculation of the street value of the plants told detectives
that what they had smashed was a $6.6 million operation.

Late into the evening, officers gowned in protective suits and face
masks continued to haul away such things as lampshades, power cables,
light bulbs and paper bags full of marijuana plants, which were
carefully marked with stickers.

Among the items seized by police were fans used to exhaust air out
the windows and help clear the apartments of chemicals that were
being used to make the plants grow quicker.

It was a streamlined operation yesterday as officers commandeered one
of the elevators, while residents used the remaining elevator to get
to their apartments.

Well past 9 p.m. officers were still systematically going through the
apartments, including Unit 1202 on the 12th floor. Inside the
apartment, placed on the kitchen floor, were rows upon rows of potted
baby marijuana plants. Above the plants was a powerful 1,000-watt
bulb. The entrance to the kitchen was shut off from the living room
with black garbage bags. The living room itself had a couch, a bed, a
television set, and a bunch of DVD and VCR players stacked neatly one
on top of the other.

In order to prevent police from using a battering ram to break open
doors, the building manager called in three locksmiths to open the
apartment doors with master keys.

Many residents said they weren't surprised by the discovery of
grow-ops in the building, but some were taken aback by the scale of
the operation.

Denis Sanchez, 25, a machinist who lives on the 11th floor, where
some of the grow-ops were located, said he knew something was going
on because the building had been plagued by power outages in the summer.

"I guess they were using a lot of electricity," Sanchez said.

Toronto police were first alerted to the existence of a grow-op in
the building when a fire broke out in April in one of the apartments
where marijuana had been grown.

Malcolm, however, said that was not what tipped off police, resulting
in yesterday's raid in five apartments.

The officer said police are aware that enterprising growers have used
apartment buildings for some time.

"It's not ingenious, it's an extremely lucrative business growing
marijuana indoors," Malcolm said. "This is unusual in the number of
apartments in the same building."

One of the biggest draws to Toronto apartment buildings by growers is
that many have a single hydro meter for the entire building, enabling
extraordinary hydro use in an apartment without ready detection.

"Building owners have to be more vigilant and notice if their hydro
bills go up," Malcolm noted.

Harry Birman, a senior manager for the building, however, said that
owners are hamstrung by tenant protection laws, which prohibit them
from entering apartments when they suspect there is a grow-op. He
said they have to give 24 hours' notice. "By then they can clear up,
these guys are very sophisticated.

"This is very upsetting for us," Birman said, adding that the cleanup
bill would cost the owners more than $250,000. "Landlords need the
tools to countermeasure these things. And one of them is the ability
to inspect suites when we suspect there are marijuana grow-ops."

According to provincial property records, the building is owned by
667661 Ontario Inc., and signs posted in the building said it was
being operated by Cando Property Management, 25 Duncanwoods Dr.,
North York. The company operates numerous apartment buildings in the
Greater Toronto Area.

Ironically, Birman had just received some signs yesterday that he was
going to put up in the lobby saying that management would be
inspecting rooms for marijuana grow-ops.

When the police arrived, he had to send the guy who was going to put
up the signs home.

Oscar Henriquez, 52, who works in a neon sign shop, said he'd smelled
marijuana from time to time but didn't think much of it because a lot
of people around the building smoked and sold the drug. "I try not to
know anybody because I'm afraid of the people. I have two kids,"
Henriquez said.

Other residents said the building is located in an area where trouble
breaks out routinely. Just last year, a man was shot in the parking
lot in front of the building, and one resident said there had been a
drive-by shooting at a nearby convenience store this past summer.

"We've never noticed anything," said an 18-year-old man who lives on
the second floor and gave his name as Oscar. "Kids smoke in the
stairwells, but that's about it."

Toronto police planned to hold a news conference today at 11 a.m. to
provide further details about the bust.