BREWERY POT SCHEME ON A SCALE NEVER SEEN

Beer Plant Had Been Turned Into 24/7 Cannabis Operation

BARRIE - 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, 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.

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.

Police also found 3,000 more marijuana plants in a rear part of the Oro
Centre commercial complex, at Line 7 of Oro-Medonte Township. Police
suspect the two drug operations are linked.

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.

"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.

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."

George Todd, president of Barrie Hydro, said there was no indication that
anything unusual was going on inside. The electricity use didn't seem
unusual and the bills were being paid. And there's no indication if the
growers were bypassing the hydro meters, Todd said.

Attempts to reach Vince Derosa, head of the private company that owns the
Molson site, were not successful

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 Robert Bleich, 29, of Stayner; Tomas Gates, 33, of Corunna,
Ont.; Michael DiCicco, 60, and Scott Dillon, 23, both of Toronto; Scott
Walker, 34, and Zoran Stojanovic, 49, both of St. Catharines; and Edward
MacAdam, 43, and Craig Walker, 24, both of Niagara Falls, Ont.

Rayne Sauve, 36, of St. Catharines, 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.