$73M IN HOMEGROWN POT SEIZED

Drug dealers looking to protect their illegal investments are going hi-tech
in their efforts to thwart police and rivals, cops said yesterday after a
Canada-wide sweep seized $73 million worth of dope.

"We have noticed some technology that they have used to try and detect
activity around the (grow) house," York Regional police Det.-Sgt. Mark Grant
said.

"We've noticed, of late, video surveillance equipment being used. They're
setting up on the hydro boxes, on the street."

Greensweep III is the latest police effort to crack down on homegrown
marijuana, so profitable it's now the third most valuable agricultural crop
in Ontario, worth an estimated $1 billion.

The week-long blitz ran Nov. 17 to 24 and saw cops arrest 163 people at 180
different homes and seize 73,000 marijuana plants across the country, worth
an estimated $73 million.

Cops raided 13 different homes in York Region, 13 homes in Peel, 10 homes in
Durham and three in Halton.

Grant said drug dealers typically rent high-end homes in quiet residential
areas to hide their farms in and steal the hydro.