'PEG'S BIG BUST SHRINKS A LITTLE

It's not as big as police initially estimated but it's still a
record-breaking bust. City cops took nearly 5,600 marijuana plants from an
inner-city warehouse, packed them into more than 70 plastic bags and
trucked the illicit harvest off to an undisclosed location yesterday morning.

Officers were also expected to cart away equipment yesterday from the grow
op that was discovered during an early-morning raid last Thursday at 468
Ross Ave.

The seizure -- the biggest of its kind in Manitoba history -- has an
estimated street value of more than $6 million.

Last week, Winnipeg police over-estimated the bust at more than 10,000 pot
plants with a potential street value of more than $11 million.

Cops admitted to the media yesterday that the initial estimate was wrong.

The building, just east of Isabel Street, was being leased. Police have
identified an undisclosed number of suspects with apparent ties to
Asian-based organized crime, but not arrests had been reported by press
time last night.

The country's largest grow-op bust occurred last January, when police
raided the former Molson brewery in Barrie, Ont., and seized more than
25,000 plants.

The operation produced $100-million worth of pot a year.

And in July 2003, police searched a farm northwest of Bittern Lake, Alta.,
where they found 10,415 plants in a barn -- with a street value of more
than $10 million.