Pubdate: Sat, 04 Dec 2004 Source: Toronto Star (CN ON) Copyright: 2004 The Toronto Star Contact: http://www.thestar.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456 Author: Betsy Powell Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada) $1M IN DRUGS, WEAPONS SEIZED FROM HOMES Police Believe Dope Is Being Traded For Guns Five charged after anonymous tips lead to sting. A man delivered a kilogram of cocaine this past week to another man. But the buyer wasn't interested in the high-grade powder, not for profit anyway. He was an undercover drug officer involved in a sting operation stemming from tips that started coming into Crime Stoppers last spring. The bogus deal that went down Wednesday night led to police executing search warrants at two residences. On Blackburn St., near Broadview Ave. and Gerrard St., officers found two loaded, semi-automatic handguns smuggled from the United States, a marijuana grow operation with 242 plants, and two kilograms of dried and packaged marijuana. When they raided another house at Alton Towers Circle in Scarborough, police recovered a .357 magnum, reported stolen from a residence in York Region this year, along with 15 grams of crack and 100 grams of powder cocaine. Additional search warrants, executed with the help of Halton Region police, at a storage unit on Twiss Rd. in Milton and a farm property on Highway 25 in Milton, turned up more pot plants and equipment used to grow weed. The haul on display at police headquarters yesterday included a brown paper bag stuffed with dried marijuana and several bags of green pot buds. Police pegged the drug cache at just under $1 million. Staff Inspector Dan Hayes of the Toronto drug squad said the success of the operation underscores the value of the anonymous phone service to law enforcement. He also noted the continuation of the "startling trend" of firearms turning up in drug busts. Drug squad officers seized 81 firearms last year, he said, though no other figures were provided for comparison. "It serves to demonstrate the tremendous dangers that are faced by police officers, particularly drug squad officers," he said. He also said the presence of harder drugs with indoor grow-ops bolsters law enforcement's contention that dope is being traded for firearms and to generate cash flow, enabling dealers to traffic in drugs such as cocaine and heroin. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin