BATTERING THE CROOKS

'Epidemic' Of Cottage Country Pot Grows

INNISFIL -- The cops showed up with a "key" they knew would open doors at
the suspected marijuana grow operation, a ramshackle little home with a
barn and warehouse just south of Barrie. "There's no door that this key
won't fit," said Det. Staff Sgt. Rick Barnum of the OPP Combined Huronia
Drug Enforcement Unit.

He was talking about the 45-kilo battering ram police had with them -- just
in case -- when they pulled into the driveway of the property where a
Merecedes Benz belonging to one of the tenants was parked Tuesday evening.

In a secret briefing just hours before, the drug team was told of the
target -- yet another suspected $1-million marijuana grow op, part of the
"epidemic" of drug sites targeted by the drug unit that uses police from
the OPP, Barrie and other Simcoe County forces.

Adrenaline ran high -- no one knew for sure how the operation would go
down. But this time cops had no problem getting into the barn where they
found $50,000 in equipment to grow high-grade marijuana potent in THC.

"No guns were drawn before our officers went in," Barnum said. "But they
are in our holsters always a half a second away if we need them."

Inside two men were taken face-down to the floor and handcuffed while a
third took flight through the fields and was arrested a short distance
away. Mark Parys, 32, Jeffrey Woollings, 36, and James Stewart, 34, are
charged with possession and production of marijuana. A fourth man Jessi
Thomerson, 18, turned himself in later. They have all been released pending
a future court date.

Later a large cube van was backed up to the barn where officers loaded up
to 1,000 marijuana plants.

"The chemicals in there were enough to make your eyes water," said one
undercover officer, referring to the toxic fertilizers used to produce a
high turnaround.

It's hard to keep up with all of the grow operations in the area, Barnum said.

"Sometimes we know exactly where they are," he said. "But it's a matter of
manpower and priorities -- which ones do you go after first and which ones
are the really bad ones." Most are linked to organized crime with a strong
link to the cocaine trade, he said.