POLICE CRACK DOWN ON OUTDOOR POT OPERATIONS

Police forces across the London, Ont., region say they've eradicated
outdoor marijuana grow operations with the potential street value of
more than $22 million -- an amount almost equal to what they found in
all of Ontario last year.

RCMP, OPP and nine other municipal police services, including
Stratford and Oxford Community Police, say about 22,000 marijuana
plants found on the properties of "unsuspecting farmers" were destroyed.

No charges were laid.

Police used aircraft to spot the operations and directed ground teams
to the locations in the one-week crackdown that began Aug. 24.

The various police services, which also included Wingham, Hanover,
Guelph, Waterloo, Owen Sound, Saugeen Shores and West Grey, shared
intelligence gathered from numerous sources.

"Police officers across the country have come to believe that
marijuana use is the gateway to the consumption of harder drugs," RCMP
Corporal Gary Boutilier said. "The illegal use of drugs, such as
marijuana and other controlled substances is often seen as a
contributing factor to other forms of crime including acts of violence
and/or theft.... Our marijuana eradication efforts endeavor to promote
safe homes and safe communities."

The announcement came a day after OPP and RCMP drug enforcement teams
announced they'd seized marijuana plants valued at $5.5 million from a
North Huron outdoor grow operation.

In that case, police arrested three suspects who are charged with
production of marijuana and possession for the purpose of
trafficking.

The estimated 22,000 plants destroyed last week is just short of the
23,723 plants destroyed in Ontario last year and almost double the
11,694 found in 2007. Nationally, the eradication program found and
destroyed 196,630 plants in 2008.

Sgt. Marc Laporte, media relations officer for London-based "O"
Division, said marijuana plants are distinguishable from other plants
- -- a fluorescent green -- because they aren't native to the area. As
well, the plants are often planted among corn and the plots are oddly
shaped and clearly visible from the air.

Police find the plants in secluded, hard-to-get-to areas a variety of
ways, including calls from the public, farmers, private pilots and
police airplanes and helicopters, including some on loan from the
national defence department.

Two weeks ago in the Kingston area, police found and destroyed nearly
15,000 marijuana plants, another indicator more people are growing the
drug.

"The numbers this year are going to be fairly high," Laporte said. "I
think it's just more people now growing it."

Laporte said marijuana plots range from small to large, some clearly
intended for personal consumption, while others are "clearly more
organized, more sophisticated" and possibly linked to organized crime.

Catching the growers is difficult, Laporte said.

"It's hard to link individuals to a site, unless we find them there,"
he said. "Our main focus is just to get it off the street, collect and
destroy."

Experts say the cultivation of marijuana in Canada, especially
indoors, has exploded over the last 30 years into a
multibillion-dollar industry, with estimates of indoor grow operations
ranging from 50,000 to 650,000 across the country.