MASSIVE MARIJUANA BUST SYMPTOM OF 'EPIDEMIC'

Police Estimate There Are About 15,000 Illegal Marijuana Grow Operations In
Ontario.

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 yesterday. The
former Molson brewery in Barrie, plainly visible from Highway 400, one of
the province's busiest commuter routes, was raided on the weekend by about
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
said at a news conference in this 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 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 Robert Bleich, 29, of Stayner; Tomas Gates, 33, of Corunna;
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.

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.

A second grow house was also discovered Sunday just north of the city.
Investigators seized more than 30,000 marijuana plants from the two locations.

The brewery operation is almost certainly not the only one of its scale in
Canada, law enforcement officials warned.

"Just because we have not stumbled on them . . . doesn't mean they're not
there," said RCMP Chief Supt. Raf Souccar, the force's director-general of
drugs and organized crime.

"The risk is low, the profit is high, deterrence is not there, so it makes
i t an attractive proposition."

Police estimate there are about 15,000 illegal marijuana grow operations in
Ontario.

But operations like the one in Barrie are not common, insisted Alan Young,
a prominent Toronto lawyer best known for his work as a marijuana advocate
and activist.

Young, who insisted most marijuana cultivated in Canada is grown on a small
scale for personal use, accused police of trumpeting their discovery in
Barrie in an effort to sway Ottawa away from decriminalization.

"This really was a lucky find for the police and they'll exploit it to gain
greater support."