POLICE SEIZE OVER $600,000 IN POT DURING DAY-LONG SWEEP OF LAMBTON

Police got to $5 million in marijuana plants ahead of the growers last
week during the latest leg of southern Ontario's annual eradication
program.

RCMP and local municipal police services pulled 5,000 plants out of
the ground during the week-long blitz, including 639 in Lambton County
during a day-long sweep on Sept. 11.

"They were peppered all over the area," said RCMP Sgt. Marc LaPorte.
"They usually find them in groups of 20-25 plants at a time, although
it could be several spots in one area."

No one part of the county can lay claim to being Lambton's pot
capital, however. The same can be said of the rest of southern Ontario.

The day-long sweep through Kitchener-Waterloo netted roughly the same
number of plants as a day on the job in Sarnia-Lambton.

There were also no reports of any serious booby traps being thrown at
officers during last week's harvest.

In other years, officers have had to watch out for trip wires arming
nail-studded boards, or worse.

In some cases, growers have put razor blades into plant stalks or laid
out bear traps to catch trespassers or unsuspecting officers.

While the harvest didn't reap any growers in this area, four people
trying to beat police to the plants in the Hamilton-Niagara area were
caught trying to bring in their crop.

All of the local plants that police confiscated were pulled out of the
ground in the country. Police didn't search inside Sarnia city limits,
LaPorte said.

Police try to keep the helicopter away from built-up areas to avoid
tipping off growers that they're on the prowl.