OPP LEAVE TONS OF MARIJUANA AT ORILLIA CITY DUMP

Doesn't Stay There Long

Police had planned to burn 50 vanloads of seized marijuana, but instead
decided to put it in a hole at the Orillia landfill. The buried treasure
lured as many as 100 people to trespass on dump property and dig up the
rotting plants. "It was like a big pot fest," one area resident said.

ORILLIA - Six people were arrested yesterday after intruders were caught
trying to dig up 50 truckloads of marijuana police buried at the city dump.

"It was like pot heaven," said one person who found the hiding place and
spent the night with scores of other people stuffing green garbage bags
full of marijuana.

Ontario Provincial Police seized at least $20-million worth of high-quality
marijuana plants from a farm near Brechin, Ont., last week, the biggest pot
bust in the province's history. They then loaded the plants into 50 cube
vans and told the media they would be burned in an incinerator. "But there
was no way we could burn it -- it was an overwhelming amount," said
Sergeant Rick Barnum of the OPP Drug Enforcement Section.

Instead, police dug a gigantic hole to bury the plants at the Orillia city
dump, which hugs the edge of Lake Simcoe in cottage country north of Toronto.

To dissuade potential thieves, rotting garbage and compost was heaped on
top of the plants.

Onlookers who saw police cars and cube vans go into the dump "put two and
two together and assumed some grass was going under," Sgt. Barnum said.

"It makes me squirm just to think of what they had to dig through to get at
it," he added. "It wouldn't have been any good to smoke at that stage."

Sgt. Barnum says he is not sure how people got into the 22-hectare dump,
which is surrounded by two-metre-high fencing topped with barbed wire.

But a hike round to the back of the dump showed at least two holes large
enough for an adult to fit through cut into the heavy chain-link fence.
Dozens of footpaths led to the compost heap.

"It was like a big pot fest," said Ron McInnes, 53, owner of The Pot Shop,
a local cannabis paraphernalia store.

Mr. McInnes said he talked to at least 25 people who were out harvesting
the heap on the first three nights it was hidden.

"There were at least a hundred of them out. They came from the waterside by
boats, they came by car and parked at the back, and they came by truck.
People were laughing and chatting all night long, but they never stopped
working. Some of these guys worked harder than they ever worked in their
lives."

He said three of his friends dug a hole deep enough for them to get at the
good stuff.

"On the top, it was covered with compost, but once you got into it, the pot
was fine." However, by Monday the pot was too rotten to smoke, he said.

Mr. McInnes said it seems "odd" police would choose such a public place to
try to hide 50 truckloads of marijuana. But Ron Stevens, the Orillia Mayor,
insisted the police did the right thing by hiding the plants under the compost.

"It was buried with all kinds of sludge and garbage," Mr. Stevens said.
"People would have to have their heads examined to want to dig through that
and smoke it."

Though the OPP headquarters sits on a hill overlooking the dump, it took a
tip from CrimeStoppers to alert police, who arrested six people without
incident on Monday.

Shawn Daulby, 30, Richard Black, 18, Steven Crawford, 23, Richard Hart, 27,
Stephen Payne, 31, and a minor face several charges, including theft and
possession of marijuana.

It was just four days earlier that another tip from CrimeStoppers sent
police to a small farm south of Orillia where an OPP helicopter patrol
spotted three men harvesting the plants. After arresting three Scarborough
men on the field, 15 machete-wielding police officers took over the harvest
and worked 10 hours hacking the plants down.

Charged in the farming operation were Fen Zhuo Xie, 41, Dam Yao, 35, and
Yun Ming Tin, 39.