DRUG BUST SHOCKS FORMER WORKERS

Local News - A massive drug operation uncovered in Barrie's former Molson
brewery plant has left local residents and former plant employees stunned.

Hans Herrmann, who lost his job at the beer factory in September, 2000,
when the plant shut down, spent 11 years inside the 375,000-square-foot
building, working on Molson's can line.

In all that time, he never imagined it could be used for such an elaborate
pot-growing operation.

"I just can't believe it. I was just shocked," Herrmann said after he was
told about the marijuana bust.

"(When the plant closed), I thought it would take a couple years to rent it
out again, but I never thought I'd hear it would be used for something like
this."

Herrmann, now a ski instructor, said he can understand how criminals found
the expansive Barrie brewery attractive for their sophisticated drug operation.

"The plant had so many different sections ... I worked on the main floor,
but it would be an ideal venue if you really want to do a big operation,"
he said, referring to beer vats the size of a large, backyard swimming pool
which police found filled with pot plants.

But, while the building may have seemed ideal for a marijuana grow
operation, Herrmann said he doesn't understand how it could operate within
the city for so long and not be detected.

"What about security that monitors the building? They would know if
something was illegal," he said.

While other Barrie residents have never stepped foot inside the former beer
plant, many say they can't believe the landmark facility, situated
alongside Highway 400, could house such a well-hidden drug operation.

"Just think of how many people go past that place," said Julie Pratt, a
Barrie resident of just three years, who drives by the brewery nearly twice
a week during her commute to Toronto. "You'd never know what was happening
inside ... It's incredible, really. They fooled us."

A nondescript commercial property on Highway 11 was the second part of
Canada's largest indoor marijuana-growing bust over the weekend.

A search warrant was issued on Saturday for a rear portion of the Oro
Centre, located at the 7th Line of Oro-Medonte Township, where police found
3,000 more marijuana plants.

Two OPP officers were still guarding the rear of the facility on Monday,
the front part of which contains a Canada Post outlet.

Police believe it is connected to the Molson operation.