MOLSON POT BUST LARGEST IN CANADA

BARRIE, Ont. -- A marijuana "factory" concealed within a sprawling old
brewery just steps from one of Ontario's busiest highways is proof Canada's
pot problem has reached "epidemic proportions," police said Monday.

The former Molson brewery in Barrie, Ont., plainly visible from Highway
400, one of the province's busiest commuter routes, was raided on the
weekend by some 100 city and provincial police officers acting on a tip.

Inside, police found marijuana with what they said had an estimated street
value of $30 million, along with a grow operation of staggering proportions
- -- the largest and most sophisticated in modern Canadian history.

"This is not a ma-and-pa operation," Barrie police Chief Wayne Frechette
wryly told a news conference in this central Ontario city an hour's drive
north of Toronto.

Across a 5,400-square metre complex the size of a football field, police
found more than 25,000 pot plants growing everywhere -- even inside the
cavernous indoor vats once used to brew beer.

Molson closed the brewery in 2000 and sold it to a company that leases
space to about half a dozen businesses. The other companies included
trucking companies and a bottling company, police said.

A police video shot shortly after the raid showed the vats teeming with
marijuana plants and an elaborate electrical room where hydro was used to
power the lights that facilitate the growing process.

Huge drawers, used to spread harvested marijuana out to allow it to dry,
were seen in the video, each one brimming with buds.

"This particular marijuana factory is the largest and most sophisticated
I'm aware of in Canada," said provincial police deputy commissioner Vaughn
Collins.

"Commercial marijuana operations have reached epidemic proportions in
Ontario; they are in every community and most are controlled by organized
crime."

The facility was set up to operate 24 hours a day and included living
quarters capable of housing as many as 50 people at once, said OPP Det.
Staff Sgt. Rick Barnum.

"These areas . . .included common areas with beds, televisions, fridges and
stoves similar to dormitory-type facilities," Barnum said.

Marijuana grown in Canada is routinely shipped to the U.S., Collins said.

"Much of Ontario marijuana is destined for U.S. markets, and it's often
traded for cocaine brought back into Canada."

Frechette, who cited the "big-box" operation as an example of how marijuana
has allowed organized crime to penetrate Canadian communities, urged the
public to be vigilant and watch for "suspicious activities."

Nine people were charged, eight of them with one count each of production
of a controlled substance and possession for the purpose of trafficking.

Charged are [NAME DELETED], 29, of Stayner, Ont.; [NAME DELETED], 33, of
Corunna, Ont.; [NAME DELETED], 60, and [NAME DELETED], 23, both of Toronto;
[NAME DELETED], 34, and [NAME DELETED], 49, both of St. Catharines, Ont.;
and [NAME DELETED], 43, and [NAME DELETED], 24, both of Niagara Falls, Ont.
[NAME DELETED], 36, of St. Catharines, Ont., was also charged with one
count of production of a controlled substance as well as one charge each of
possession of cocaine, possession of ecstasy and possession for the purpose
of trafficking.