DRUG OFFICERS WEED OUT POT

"It doesn't matter in our operation if there's one (marijuana) plant or
a 1,000 (marijuana plants)"

The three men never knew what hit them. With a helicopter hovering
overhead, a barking and growling German shepherd staring them down, and
three heavily-armed OPP officers blocking them, they simply had no
place to go but police custody.

Six hundred and fifty nearby marijuana plants -- neatly arranged in
plastic pails amongst the pine and cedar trees in a secluded wooded lot
near Smiths Falls -- were mature and ready for harvest.

A sophisticated system of hoses and pumps irrigated the dope crop,
pumping water from the surrounding swamp onto the well-nurtured plants.


But for the 15 OPP drug enforcement officers assigned to rid eastern
Ontario's fields, forests and swamps of pot, it was time for this
crop's growing season to come to an abrupt halt before the marijuana
could hit the streets.

"It doesn't matter in our operation if there's one plant or a 1,000,"
said OPP helicopter pilot Scott Ross, who has become an expert at
spotting the leafy green marijuana plants from a few hundred feet in
the air as part of the provincial police's drug eradication program. In
his 10 years as a pilot, Ross has learned to watch for an almost neon
green colour.

"Once you get good at it you can pick out individual plants," he said.
"There is nothing growing naturally that I know of in the province of
Ontario that is that shade of green."

Last year, the OPP drug eradication program removed 110,385 marijuana
plants from across Ontario.

The drug enforcement unit expects to top that number this year. A
record bust at a pot plantation in Lanark County in early September
uncovered more than $9-million worth of marijuana.

Eastern Ontario has become a hot spot for pot growers. According to OPP
statistics, more than half of the weed collected by OPP drug officers
in 1999 came from the eastern half of the province, with about 35,000
plants from the Ottawa and Kingston areas alone.

"It's Getting Worse"

"Every year we find it's getting worse," said Det. Sgt. John Sullivan,
who heads up the eastern region eradication program. Only a day before
stumbling upon their 650-plant discovery, drug enforcement officers
packed a 20-foot cube van to its roof with the illicit leaves from a
crop near Bancroft. If the truck's cargo was cash, it would need to be
an armoured car -- the more than 4,500 plants had a street value of
almost $5 million.

No criminals will ever see the cash though, as the load is bound to be
burned.

Helicopter surveillance, which makes short work of exposing
plantations, is key to the program's success.

In the summer, the OPP dedicates its two choppers to the drug
eradication program, and leases a third with money out of the
criminals' own pockets in the form of a $313,000 grant from a
government proceeds-of-crime fund.

Sweeps are hit-and-miss, although informants often provide tips as to
where the helicopter should search.

In addition to the highly-visible vegetation, helicopter spotters are
also watching for watering cans, plastic drums, tools, or anything else
which seems out of the ordinary.

"When you fly acres and acres of cornfields and you see a patch cut
out, you know what it is," Sullivan said. "The farmer didn't go and
plant some tomatoes."

"Harder To Detect"

And most often the farmer or land owner is the unsuspecting victim,
left startled when the long line of OPP vehicles descends on their
property to wipe out a pot patch.

With a marijuana plant's growing season shorter than corn's, most
cultivators have already cleared out their illegal crops before the
land owner evens knows it's there.

"They're trying to make it harder to detect," Sullivan said. "We're not
often finding 400 or 500 plants together. They're planting 10 here and
15 there. Gone are the days where you'll find a 1,000 plants." Sullivan
said growers are getting more creative in how they protect their crops,
both from police and drug poachers, who cash in with someone else's
plantation.

While the drug officers avoided booby traps in Lanark County, nasty
surprises often await them in the bush.

Tearing out marijuana plants in Bancroft, officers were sliced by razor
blades attached to plant stalks, threatened by fish hooks dangling at
eye level from tree branches and stabbed by hidden boards with rusty
six-inch nails -- coated with infectious fish guts -- sticking out of
the ground.

"You really have got to be on your toes," said one undercover officer.
"You can't just walk into the bush and smell. You don't know what
you're running into."

At a recent bust in Kemptville, officers discovered five occupied tents
within walking distance of the 3,300-plant crop. After arresting four
people, police searched the area and uncovered a loaded shotgun, .22-
calibre rifle and three high-powered replica .357 Magnum pellet guns.

Finding loaded weapons and people willing to use them is becoming
increasingly common, Sullivan said.

"There's no longer that lackadaisical approach where we're walking in
and taking someone's plants," Sullivan said.

"We need to protect our lives."

And even though the drug eradication program is only destroying a
fraction of the estimated five million pot plants grown across Canada
annually, the OPP has no intention to quit nipping the drug trade in
the bud.

"We're not getting them all, but I feel good we've taken $100-million
worth of product off the streets that isn't making it to the schools
and society," Sullivan said.

"What we're taking off today is saving us in the future."