SWEEP TARGETS POT GROWERS

Eastern Ont. police scoop 30,500 plants

Eastern Ontario had a banner crop of marijuana this year, but little
of it was harvested in the Brockville area during a massive police
eradication program last month.

Results released Wednesday show a sweep of the area led by the RCMP,
working with provincial and municipal police forces, netted about $31
million worth of pot plants in a concentrated effort to eliminate
outdoor grow operations in eastern Ontario.

Police seized and destroyed more than 30,500 pot plants in the sweep,
which took place between September 7 and 17.

It involved an area extending from Trenton in the west, north to
Renfrew County and east to Prescott-Russell, said Detective Constable
Dave Glass, of the Ontario Provincial Police's drug enforcement
section in Kingston.

"There's still spinoff investigations going on," said Glass, adding
the sweeps are likely to end soon.

"We're basically at the end of the growing season."

The area-wide effort involved local municipal police departments,
including officers from Brockville, Smiths Falls and Gananoque.

Although the numbers fluctuated, anywhere from 15 to 20 officers were
taking part at any given time, Glass said.

The area extending from Gananoque to Prescott, then north through
Athens to Westport, usually yields high numbers of pot plants in such
sweeps, but this year was atypical, with fewer than 1,000 of the
plants removed here, said Glass.

There likely is no one reason for that drop, he said.

"Some people are switching to indoor grows; some people are finding
better hiding spots. It can be attributed to any number of reasons."

The joint effort targeted outdoor crops only and was aimed solely at
eliminating the plants before they reached the street, said Glass.
Arrests and prosecutions are left to follow-up investigations.

Officers flying above the area can easily spot marijuana patches in
rural fields, he said.

And they found more than twice last year's amount of pot growing
outdoors in eastern Ontario, said Glass, adding last year's effort
netted just over 12,000 plants.

"It kept us busy (this year)."

Again, a number of factors can explain this boom, said
Glass.

"The mid-size grows we see are on the decline."

A mid-size operation would contain between 1,000 and 2,000 plants, he
said.

Instead, police are seeing a proliferation at the two extremes: small
operations with 50 to 100 plants and large ones with more than 10,000.

Glass credited members of the public who helped in the operation by
providing information.