POLICE BUST UP $4M POT OUTFIT

Five Arrested After OPP Spot Marijuana In Field Near Bracebridge

BRACEBRIDGE - A $4-million marijuana operation has been shut down and cut
down, and five Toronto people arrested and charged Thursday, when police
raided a Speicher Lane property.

More than 4,000 marijuana plants have been seized by police. Yesterday,
police were cutting down the illegal crop and removing the marijuana in trucks.

The names of the accused will not be released by provincial police until
two other suspects are brought into custody and charged, OPP Const. Mary
Hurley told The Packet yesterday. She said the arrests of the remaining two
suspects are expected soon.

Federal Crown prosecutor Peter Heath told The Packet yesterday that one
woman and four men have each been charged with one count of production of a
controlled substance (marijuana) and with possession of marijuana for the
purposes of trafficking.

Heath said that all five accused appeared yesterday before a justice of the
peace at the Ontario Court of Justice in Bracebridge and their bail hearing
was adjourned until Monday at 1:30 p.m.

According to Const. Hurley, the investigation began just before 11 a.m
Thursday when officers in an OPP helicopter observed what they considered
to be an illegal "grow operation" in an area about six kilometres east of
Bracebridge in a heavily-wooded rural area.

Several people were arrested leaving the property, and then a search
warrant was obtained and police raided the property at about 5:30 p.m.

Police found more than 1,000 plants growing in a field, and another 3,000
plants inside a large storage barn and residence. The OPP estimated the
plants' street value, if processed, at about $4 million.