Pubdate: Wed, 03 Oct 2012
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2012 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/wEtbT4yU
Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author: Marg. Bruinemann
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/af.htm (Asset Forfeiture)

FROM WEED TO WEEDS

Developer Says He Didn't Know His $9m Site Was a Grow-Op

It was once home to Barrie, Ont.'s biggest employer, and later the 
country's largest indoor grow-op, with marijuana growing in old beer 
vats. Now, the 35-acre former Molson brewery site, worth an estimated 
$8.9-million, sits fallow, ragweed sprouting up in the former parking 
lots. The only remaining structures: a tiny guard house with a busted 
window along with a "For sale" sign.

It is owned by Fercan Developments Inc., whose principal is Toronto 
property developer Vince DeRosa. But federal prosecutors assert the 
property is the proceeds of crime; a forfeiture hearing, with its 
goal of seizing it for the Crown, is under way this week in Newmarket, Ont.

Mr. DeRosa has never been criminally linked to the grow operation, 
but his brother, Robert, was identified as the property manager and a 
key organizer in the marijuana production and is serving a seven-year 
prison term. At his sentencing last year, Robert said his brother had 
no knowledge of the buds, and apologized to him.

Brian Greenspan, Fercan's lawyer, said taking one man's property for 
the actions of his brother may be the makings of a morality tale, but 
it has no basis in law.

"The government thinks an innocent third party should have their 
property forfeited," he said. "They force us in court for us to prove 
we're the innocent third party. This is a total reversal of 
traditional principles.

"They say, biblically, that Vince DeRosa is his brother's keeper."

The Crown says the property was used to commit a criminal offence, 
and that the owner of the property knew about it and profited from it.

Over the coming weeks, Justice Peter West is expected to hear details 
about how police swept into the former Molson brewery on Jan. 10, 2004.

Through the use of 91 photographs and a video of the plant, Ontario 
Provincial Police Detective-Constable Michael Bednarczyk began 
explaining Monday and Tuesday what he and a large team of officers 
discovered when they raided the former brewery: A secret door, hidden 
behind a hinged bookcase on wheels, a camera hidden inside a speaker 
wired to a monitor in a nearby bedroom, a stolen generator, 
complicated electrical and air-exchange systems.

"That was the only access to the grow operation," he testified. The 
prosecution is expected to present another 18 witnesses, revealing in 
detail for the first time what was going on behind the walls of the 
former brewery, as well as another building along Highway 11 in 
nearby Oro-Medonte Township, and how they operated so secretly within 
plain sight.

About a dozen "gardeners" working 24-hour shifts and living in an 
on-site dormitory were arrested; all later pleaded guilty to 
production-related charges. In 2010 there was another set of arrests, 
of what police called the masterminds. Most of them, largely middle 
aged men, also pleaded guilty to the related charges.

Grow charts found inside the facility, where more than 2,000 
five-leaf plants were grown, indicated the Molson building could have 
been serving as a cannabis-growing factory for two years before 
police were tipped off, reaping an annual income in excess of 
$8-million. Forty 100-foot-long vats, once used for commercial beer 
production, were converted into hydroponic greenhouses. Police 
estimated it would have cost about $3.5-million to launch the operation.

Det.- Const. Bednarczyk laid out the scene within the sprawling 
plant: Two different sections, operating under two separate companies 
that rented space, were used and retrofitted, each with a series of 
grow rooms, bedrooms and dormitories. The entrance to one of the grow 
areas within space leased by Ontario Pallet was obscured by the 
moveable bookcase, he explained. And inside one of the rooms, with 
rules posted on the wall, a hidden camera would monitor the growers' work.

There were rooms that housed plants in various stages of growth and a 
"mom room" where clippings were cut off older plants to create new 
ones. He pointed to a watering system, the electrical rooms with 
walls of wires and extra wiring bringing in power from another part 
of the building and the heat-exchange system equipped with dampers.

"Nothing is left to chance," said the police officer.

During pre-hearing motions last week, Judge West said he viewed the 
forfeiture provisions as part of the sentencing process, separate 
from the actual sentencing of the offenders but part of the sentencing phase.

"The seizure of the property and putting it into the 
forfeiture-application process is another step into targeting 
organized crime in Ontario," said OPP Inspector Andy Karski.

The Crown also wants to seize proceeds from the sale of Bob DeRosa's 
house in Phelpston, Ont., near Barrie, owned by GRVN Group Inc. Its 
principal is another DeRosa brother. Prosecutors allege that 
designated-substance offences were committed there in 2010.
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