RCMP DIG UP POT IN COUNTY

Last week a Sea King helicopter scoured the ground in an attempt to
locate marijuana plants growing in Shelburne County.

500 marijuana plants were discovered growing outdoors in the small
village of Sable River Wednesday.

"Operation Sabot" is a national, yearly marijuana eradication program
run by the South West Nova Drug Section in cooperation with the local
police force.

"This time of the year," explains Sgt. Barry MacLellan of the
Shelburne RCMP, "if anyone is growing plants outside; now is the time
when they are ripe."

Once the helicopter spots the pot plants, officers on foot will go
into the woods and pull them out.

The Sea King circled different areas of the woods in the county and
found smaller amounts of plants growing including one plant in Lower
Ohio.

Although the operation is successful at stopping the marijuana from
hitting the streets, they usually have a difficult time laying charges
on the grower.

"Unless we catch somebody at the site actively cultivating or we have
other evidence to indicate somebody may own these plants," says Sgt.
MacLellan, "it is not looked into any further."

He says the main purpose of the exercise is to stop the plant from
being cultivated and sold.

"Most of the time the property where the plants are found is not owned
by the person who grew them and many times the plants are found on
government land," adds Sgt. MacLellan.

Sgt. MacLellan explains that not all of the air searching is just luck
but many times the local police are tipped of possible locations that
they will mark on their GPS to pass on to the helicopter for their
search.

"What is hard to locate on foot is pretty easy to spot from the air,"
says Sgt. MacLellan.

According to Sgt. MacLellan, the marijuana has been cut and will be
destroyed at a later time.