BLITZ TARGETS POT HARVEST IN RURAL AREAS

They're getting ready for the harvest across Southwestern Ontario --
not farmers, but police with an eye out for illegal marijuana plots in fields.

Often grown on unsuspecting farmers' land, between legitimate crops
or in more secluded spots, pot is becoming the focus of a
co-ordinated crackdown by area police.

"As we get into late July and August, that's when it really starts
popping up," Sgt. Dave Rektor of the OPP's Western Region said yesterday.

Every year, police find tens of thousands of pot plants hidden in
corn crops and in wooded areas around the region, he said.

Last year, OPP officers in the Western Region -- which stretches from
Tobermory in the north to Lake Erie in the south, and east from
Windsor to Guelph -- snagged more than $113 million worth of the
potent weed from rural areas, Rektor said.

Close to 10,000 plants were seized in Mount Forest, for example, and
about 1,600 scooped up in rural areas around London, he said.

That's a "very significant" amount, he said. Police aim to curb the
pot-growing with seasonal measures designed to root out the outdoor crops.

Rektor said OPP are already working with farmers to inform them about
the potential for illegal crops sprouting up amongst their legal yield.

Any suspicious activity -- like people walking through fields or
parking for long periods of time along the roads -- should be
reported to police, he said.

Just yesterday, someone in Middlesex County called police to report a
few people wandering in and out of a wooded area with buckets, he said.

While they may or may not have been cultivating a pot crop, it's
better to report any unusual activity, Rektor said.

"We work with our local farmers to be pot spotters," he said.
"They're very vigilant."

Police also train pilots who spray farmers' fields to look for pot as
they make their rounds, and tap into other local police forces for tips.

And come mid-August, a full-fledged police blitz -- involving local
and provincial police on the ground and in the air -- aims to
eradicate the illegal greens.

For now, OPP are relying on the vigilance of those in rural areas to
alert police to strange behaviour or growing weed, Rektor said.

"We're always encouraging people to report suspicious activity."