POT PLANT HAUL GROWS

Police have seized yet another haul of marijuana plants found growing
among legitimate crops.

Officers found 11 plants Monday growing in a field off Zone Rd. 5 in
Bothwell, and another 10 on Bush Line in Chatham after receiving tips
from the public.

Though this is the fourth and fifth pot discovery by police within a
two-week period -- bringing the street value of drugs destroyed to
over $1.5 million -- it's only a faction of what's growing in the municipality.

"Whatever we seize every year is just the tip of the iceberg," Crime
Stoppers co-ordinator Const. Dave Bakker said yesterday.

"We find less than five per cent of what's growing out there."

Last year, 48,000 pot plants were found in Chatham- Kent and later
destroyed by police.

To make a bust, officers rely heavily on tips from people who spot
the plants, Bakker said.

Some of the tips come from residents driving by fields who notice the
illicit plants, but others tips come from pilots flying overhead who
keep an eye out for the distinctive growing pattern of marijuana.

Bakker called the airborne Operation Pot Spot one of the most
successful programs Crime Stoppers operates.

Pilots fly overhead, take pictures of pot in fields and ship them off
to police.

"They're the same people that call us on the phone.

They're just out for an afternoon Sunday flight and they take a
picture of the (marijuana), we give it a code number and they send it
to us in the mail. It works very, very well," Bakker said.

From the sky, marijuana growing operations look like circles cut
into normal crops. Growers will cut down areas of corn and plant a
circle of pot, then around 50 feet away, do the same thing, making a
distinctive pattern for pilots to find.

So far, the marijuana plants confiscated by police have been small --
about three to four feet high -- but plants can get as high as 15
feet at full maturity.

"These very well may have been cultivated in a hydroponics operation
and moved out into the fields to get a better yield," Chatham-Kent
Police Service Const. Doug Gutteridge said.

"It's early in the season and the haul thus far is quite high."

While Chatham-Kent has seen a surge in pot busts, neighbouring
municipalities haven't seen much action. The Leamington Police
Service hasn't seized one pot plant growing in a field this year.

"Usually it's in another month or so when the plants get really big
we'll find something, but we haven't had anything yet," Const. Kevin O'Neil.

"It's still kind of early."

Bakker said in Chatham-Kent tips from sharp-eyed residents have
allowed police to find so much within such a short amount of time,
but there is still much that goes undiscovered.

"The amount that's produced outdoors in this area is overwhelming," he said.