Pubdate: Tue, 13 Jan 2004 Source: Medicine Hat News (CN AB) Copyright: 2004 Alberta Newspaper Group, Inc. Contact: http://www.medicinehatnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1833 Author: Canadian Press Note: This article is posted as an exception to MAP policies not to archive minor pre-trial arrest stories, and not to alter archived articles from what is published. In light of the novelty of these charges, in a justified exception to our usual policies, this article is archived with the names of the accused redacted. MOLSON POT BUST LARGEST IN CANADA BARRIE, Ont. -- 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 Monday. The former Molson brewery in Barrie, Ont., plainly visible from Highway 400, one of the province's busiest commuter routes, was raided on the weekend by some 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 wryly told a news conference in this central Ontario 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 out to allow it 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 [NAME DELETED], 29, of Stayner, Ont.; [NAME DELETED], 33, of Corunna, Ont.; [NAME DELETED], 60, and [NAME DELETED], 23, both of Toronto; [NAME DELETED], 34, and [NAME DELETED], 49, both of St. Catharines, Ont.; and [NAME DELETED], 43, and [NAME DELETED], 24, both of Niagara Falls, Ont. [NAME DELETED], 36, of St. Catharines, Ont., 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. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman