ENORMOUS DOPE OPERATION DISCOVERED

Cops Break into Industrial Complex to Find Grow-Op

An Indoor marijuana farm that operated in a Scarborough industrial unit for
the past 18 months was one of the biggest and most sophisticated ever seen
in Toronto, police say. Toronto Police yesterday seized 4,200 marijuana
plants in two stages of growth and 35 kilos of dried or bagged weed from a
heavily fortified building at 50 Skagway Ave.

Police said the value of yesterday's drug haul was about $4.4 million.

Det. Jim Gibson estimated the secret grow operation produced weed with an
annual street value of $22 million.

"It is definitely huge for an urban operation," Gibson said.

"It is the biggest one I have seen. It is very well-organized and
well-financed. An enormous amount of very expensive equipment was being used."

Prior to its use as an illegal weed farm, the unit was occupied by the Weed
Man lawn care service.

"That is rather ironic," Gibson said.

Found Building

Gibson said police have yet to arrest the new "weed people," but he said he
is confident that justice will be done.

"We have our suspicions," he said.

Skagway Ave. is a cul-de-sac that runs east from Brimley Rd., mid-way
between Eglinton Ave. and Kingston Rd. The busted unit was on the north
side of a circle at the east end of the street.

When Gibson and a 10-member team of 42 Div. Major Crime Unit detectives
pounced on the grow operation at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday they found the
836-square-metre concrete block building almost impenetrable.

Custom-fitted steel bars had been placed across the front windows and steel
doors featured double locks. Officers found an Achilles' heel in a
boarded-up window area in a roll-up steel door at the unit's rear. The
building was neatly divided into three separate grow rooms, each one
holding 2,500 plants in various stages of growth.

One room held neat rows of baby plants, a second leafy mid-stage plants and
a third room showed signs of a recent crop harvest, Gibson said.

In a smaller room, rows and rows of recently picked and dried marijuana lay
on a series of steel trays. Police also found weed in tightly sealed
one-pound packages.

The sophisticated grow-op featured an industrial-sized venting system and
scores of ceiling and floor fans and blinding 1,000-watt hydrophonic grow
lights and reflective umbrella-style collars.

"They had this down to a science," Gibson said.

"It is a very sterile environment. Very neat, very tidy. I have not seen
anything so organized on such a grand scale."

Gibson said dozens of electrical ballasts, lights and equipment likely
worth "in excess of $100,000" were also seized.