PARTNERS SNIFF OUT POT FARM

$2M Hamilton Bust

Two cops with a nose for illegal weed stumbled on a $2-million marijuana
farm hidden under a Hamilton building.

Det.-Const. Kim Walker said he and Hamilton Police partner Det.-Const. Gord
Gross "got a big whiff of the weed" as they were driving along Ottawa St.
N. on Wednesday.

When they looked inside, all they saw was a large empty ground floor with a
few abandoned tools, "which made it look vacant," Walker said. "There was
no odour at all."

The pair parked in a lot across the street, where they again inhaled waves
of pot. The fumes were coming from a city sewer.

They called in a city works crew and a hydro team who uncovered an
extensive power-theft link to the building. Walker and Gross obtained a
search warrant.

In the basement, they found 3,000 marijuana plants in various stages of
growth, plus $100,000 worth of equipment, including three new furnaces and
air conditioners that exhausted into to the city sewer system.

No one has been arrested.