2 MORE IN POT ARREST FREED

BARRIE -- Two more of nine men accused in connection with producing
marijuana at one of Canada's largest ever pot growing operations got
their get-out-of-jail passes yesterday after family members scrounged
up $10,000 in cash to bail them out. Three of the men got out on
Tuesday after being charged in the sophisticated grow operations at
the former Molson brewery. The operation employed shift-workers to
tend the plants around the clock to generate $100 million a year.

In an unexpected twist yesterday, federal Crown attorney Karen Jokinen
asked for a retroactive publication ban on details of the bail hearing
and bail conditions, even though the defence lawyers and some of the
men who are charged were not present.

One of the defence lawyers who later heard about the ban said he was
surprised that he wasn't informed about the move.

'HIGHLY UNUSUAL'

"I'm not saying that this would adversely affect my client -- but the
point is, this was done while I was not there and I find that highly
unusual," defence lawyer Andrew Perrin said.

"It concerns me when the police and the Crown start dictating how a
case will be run."

He noted that, a day earlier, the OPP tried to adjourn the bail
hearings without legal grounds. Three other men have been given bail
but still have not come up with the cash.

Only one of the bail hearings will be contested but was put off until
today because Michael DiCicco, 60, of Toronto was in a Barrie
hospital. He was released yesterday.

Meanwhile two locations -- the former landmark brewery, a massive
building off highway 400, and a plaza off of Hwy. 11 north of Barrie,
the site of another grow-op bust on Sunday -- have been closed off to
the public, while police continue to investigate.

It is not yet known how police will dump the 30,000 plants seized at
the former brewery and 3,000 plants seized from the 2921 Hwy. 11 location.

A search warrant executed on Friday that allowed more than 100 police
officers to swarm the buildings has been sealed by the courts.