EARLY HARVEST FOR POT GROWERS

It Was A Scene That Certainly Drew The Attention Of Locals.

Just around noon on Thursday, people at the north end of Walton spied
a helicopter hovering above a field at the corner of Brussels Line
and Moncrieff Road. Vehicles, carrying law enforcement officers were
the next to arrive.

The reason was Project Sabot, an initiative that began Sept. 5 and
ended Sept. 8. Six police services teamed up to conduct the four-day
marijuana eradication operation to locate outdoor grows in
south-western Ontario. The combined services Marijuana Eradication
Team was comprised of police officers from the Waterloo Regional,
Guelph, Hamilton and Stratford Police Services, the Huron, Perth and
Wellington OPP, and the OPP drug enforcement section as well as the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police from Kitchener and Hamilton detachments.

The team was formed to locate and destroy outdoor marijuana grows
throughout the Region of Waterloo, Huron, Perth and Wellington
Counties. The municipal, provincial and federal police services
shared information gathered from numerous sources to make strategic
strikes against specific marijuana grow areas. They also combined
human and technical resources to make the project cost-efficient and effective.

The partnership provided an opportunity for the participating police
services to share training techniques and intelligence on drug issues
in their communities. "Through a combined effort, larger amounts of
marijuana can be seized at one time and taken from the fields before
it reaches the streets, making marijuana less available to drug users
and reducing the risk to our communities," said Sgt. Cam Croal,
Kitchener RCMP spokesperson.

Approximately 5,500 plants, weighing 3,880 kgs or 8,536 lbs were
seized over the four days. This team is one of several RCMP-led teams
formed to conduct similar initiatives in Ontario throughout the month
of September. Other operations were conducted earlier this year in
Thunder Bay and Sault Ste. Marie.

The police ask the public to contant the OPP if they have any
information about marijuana grows or other drug-related offences.