BEHIND THE LINES OF $10M MARIJUANA FARM

It Looks Wholesome Enough From The Road, Nothing Like A $10-Million
Criminal Enterprise.

The rusted red tractor, the laundry drying on the porch and the wooded gate
around the garden all give the farmhouse a feel of authenticity.

Even the kilometre-long dirt road behind the house looks as if it belongs
in the rural county.

But the clearing at the end of the road doesn't.

This plot of land in Prince Edward County ­ larger than a football field
and lined by trees to the north, south, east and west ­ was where an army
of police officers yanked out about 9,000 robust marijuana plants ready for
harvest.

On Wednesday, armed officers raided the farm, just down the road from a
Girl Guide camp and a winery in a part of the county known as Cressy.

A police helicopter hovered over the property, drawing the attention of
neighbours, none of whom knew the farm down the road was being used to grow
a fortune in pot.

For two days, officers scoured the farm near the shores of Lake Ontario,
ripping and cutting the plants out of the ground.

"Nobody had any idea this was going on at all," said Travis Carter.

The 25-year-old was mowing his girlfriend's parents' lawn on Wednesday
evening when the sound of whirring propellers in the sky drowned out the
sound of his whirring blades on the ground.

"I saw the helicopter flying real low and I went to check out what was
going on.

"I couldn't believe it."

The Whig-Standard explored the property, an innocuous farm larger than 100
hectares that doubled as the site of an illegal venture.

The house is a two-storey home with white siding and a roof full of peeling
shingles.

The unkempt garden in front, overflowing with colourful flowers and tall
weeds, conceals an unusual interior.

A room visible through a sliding glass door from the veranda contains none
of the usual comforts of home, no furniture, no appliances, no pictures.

Instead it's decorated with several plastic pots, a black tarp, a white
tarp and a tangled mess of electrical cords hanging from the ceiling.

The inground swimming pool in the back yard is black with dark green algae.
Water bugs skim along the murky water's surface.

A peek through the sliding glass door in the back yard shows a
wood-panelled room with three unmade beds, a woodstove and a kitchen table.
A fire extinguisher sits upright on the ground and copies of Sing Tao
Weekly, a Chinese-language newspaper with an office in Toronto, litter the
floor.

Three massive metal barns next to the house appear neglected. The roof of
one barn has partly collapsed, but the damage isn't visible from the outside.

There's no indication that the unassuming dirt road behind the house leads
to anything important.

As you travel along the path, there's a rusted gate lying on the ground. A
sign on the gate reads: "Closed. No trespassing."

In the distance, at the end of the tree-lined road, there's a field of dirt
­ pay dirt.

The expansive field, perfectly situated under a bright sun and a blue sky,
looks as if it has been torn to shreds.

Every few steps through the churned-up soil, cluttered with rocks and
brush, there's a hearty stalk of a pot plant about three centimetres in
diameter that's been hacked off during the police cleanup.

There's the occasional distinctive five-pronged marijuana leaf and the
distinctive stale smell from the plant.

And there's another surprise ­ a plant in full bloom.

The hordes of officers from force's such as Prince Edward OPP, Quinte West,
Kingston Police, as well as the drug-sniffing dogs and the OPP helicopter
that monitored the cleanup from the sky, missed a plant or two.

Or 12.

A 15-minute survey of the grounds uncovered a dozen plants ­ worth about
$12,000 on the street ­ either chopped off and dying in the sun or still
intact and rooted in the ground.

An old Mazda pickup truck with a spade, a hoe and a pick axe in its cab was
left parked in the southwest corner of the field.

A bucket of water and a pile of dry dog food was left in a pizza box beside
the truck.

Carter said when he arrived at the house on Wednesday just after 6 p.m.,
two large, muzzled German shepherds were brought out of the house and put
in a van.

A sea of shotgun-wielding officers clad in dark protective suits stood
outside the house, Carter said.

"I'd never seen so many cops in my life."

Police used rented trucks to haul off the marijuana, the second-largest
bust made by the joint forces drug unit known as Project Longarm.

Police reported the cache of pot was destroyed by Friday afternoon.

Kai-Wah Chan, 40, and Bing Bong Feng, 50, face charges of production of a
controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance for the purpose
of trafficking, as well as possession of proceeds of crime.

A 47-year-old woman, Wai-King Tang, was arrested at a Scarborough home on
Saturday morning and transported to Quinte Regional Detention Centre in
Napanee.

She faces charges of production of a controlled substance and possession
for the purpose of trafficking a controlled substance.