COPS FOCUS ON BUSINESSES

Barrie's former Molson plant is brewing more surprises.

Beyond the discovery of Canada's largest pot-growing operation within
its walls is the mystery of what else is going on inside the
375,000-square-foot facility.

There is little evidence of some of the businesses purporting to
operate inside the building. Only one appears to have a telephone
number listed in Barrie.

"Which may tell you something," says Barrie's Police Chief Wayne
Frechette.

That one number is shared between Aurora Beverages and National
Roasters, operated by Vince De Rosa, a principal in Fercan
Developments, owner of the building fronting Highway 400.

The building seemed to be used, in part, as a sort of way
station.

Three transport companies based elsewhere used the plant for storage
and docking space. Another had an office and was actually based there.
The facility was also used to store car parts.

The former brewery is sealed and access to the outside world is
denied.

About 25 police officers have secured the building.

Police are interviewing those claiming to have offices and are
allowing some escorted access to the building.

"It does take some time to determine who is legitimate and who's not,"
says Frechette.

He says one is a parts supplier to Alliston's Honda car assembly
plant.

Production there could have been threatened had the supplier not been
able to move the parts out in time.

Jim Kelly managed to get some stuff out Wednesday, allowing him to
operate his Karlea Transport again.

But much of it remains behind, to be examined by police.

"It's been devastating," he says. "We're operating out of our house
right now."

Kelly purchased R.K. trucking in March, which was based in a secluded
area of the plant occupying about 800 square feet. He says he' s in
the process of looking for new space from which to run the company and
its five transport trucks.

Fercan's De Rosa has been illusive since police raided the building
and discovered 30,000 marijuana plants worth up to $30 million being
hydroponically grown in a facility occupying about one-sixth of the
building.

De Rosa hasn't returned calls from city officials in about a
year.

Fercan, with substantial real estate holdings which include buildings
in Hamilton and St. Catharines, has refused to comment on
controversial issues in the past.

Fercan is based in Toronto and shares the same address as Aurora
Beverage, as does 1071118 Ontario Ltd.

The numbered company owns a building on Highway 11, which police also
raided last weekend, uncovering 3,000 pot plants.

It's unclear what kind of business National Roasters, also called
Multi-Brand Foods, was doing at the plant.

Police say coffee was found there.

Aurora Beverages had intended to bottle water there and had a permit
from the Ministry of Environment to take more than one million litres
of water, although that had not yet begun. Kelly says lines were being
installed on the property for the beverage company.

Police say the 60,000 square feet used for the drug growing operation
had been extensively renovated. Former Molson employees were summoned
to assist with broken pipes and other building problems, but parts of
the building were unrecognizable to them, says Frechette.

OPP Det. Staff Sgt. Rick Barnum, who heads the force's drug units
across Central Ontario, says police are taking thousands of exhibits
out of the building as evidence against the nine people charged over
the weekend.

Some of the pot plants have also been moved, although police remain
mum about their fate.

There was some concern a year ago when word leaked out in Orillia that
truck loads of marijuana plants were being hauled to the local dump.
People swarmed to the landfill, digging through garbage in search of
the weed and some were charged.

Barnum says that won't happen in this situation.

"We started yesterday (Wednesday), getting some of the plants
harvested," he says. "It's being destroyed as we speak.

"We hope to have it cleared out of there by the end of the
week."

Drug officers from across the province are overseeing the removal of
paraphernalia from the Barrie site. Barnum says the officers are also
analyzing the growing process believed to be used to produce three or
four crops a year.

Police didn't come across any booby-traps, weapons or cash in their
continuing search.