CHOPPER SMOKES OUT $9M POT PLOTS

Lanark County was going to pot before the OPP stepped in last weekend.

In what's described as the biggest drug bust in the county's history, OPP officers seized more than $9 million in marijuana plants last Friday. An OPP helicopter flying over Lanark Highlands, about 30 km north of Perth, stumbled upon a major pot patch.

"I don't think our people knew what they had until they were on the ground seizing the plants," said Senior OPP Const. Neil Fennell. "Never in my 26 years have we had a bust that big in Lanark County." Officers found a "motherlode" of more than 9,000 plants.

Looking for the crop's cultivator inside a house on the property, police got yet another surprise: Four rifles.

'Littered With ... Locales'

The OPP's 1999 marijuana eradication project showed eastern Ontario as the site of choice for pot producers, accounting for more than half of the 110,385 plants seized.

"Eastern Ontario is littered with rural locales which are ideal for producing marijuana," Fennell said. "When you have some bush, it's easier to hide your crop."

Members of the drug unit went back into the air and found another significant plantation in Montague Twp., east of Smiths Falls. Police seized 200 plants with a street value of about $200,000 as well as three rifles.

Officers are working with the property owners to find the growers. Anyone with information on these crops or any other is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-267-8477.