Members of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) East Region Community Street Crime Unit (CSCU) seized approximately over 1,700 cannabis plants in South Dundas Township this week.
CSCU officers, along with members of the OPP Organized Crime Enforcement Bureau (OCEB), OPP Emergency Response Team (ERT), OPP Canine Unit and the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Detachment executed a warrant on September 21, 2020 at a location on Rowena Road. Canada Border Services and Ottawa Police Service also attended as part of the investigation.
In addition to the cannabis plants, officers also seized over 200-kilograms of processed cannabis, as well as growing and processing equipment.
13 people were arrested at the location. All have been charged with Cultivate, propagate or harvest more than four cannabis plants under section 12(4)(b) of the Cannabis Act (CA).
All accused persons were released on an undertaking and are scheduled to attend the Ontario Court of Justice in Morrisburg on December 1, 2020. The investigation is continuing.
Seizures continue
This is yet another large scale illicit cannabis raids in Ontario over the last several months.
Police in Chatham-Kent, Ontario say they executed a search warrant at a Greenhouse facility on September 16, seizing over $7,300,000 in cannabis.
On the same day in Caledon, Ontario, police seized 235 plants from an illegal grow. Earlier this month, US and Canadian authorities arrested four and seized over 800 cannabis plants and dried cannabis from an illegal grow operation, and approximately 400 grams of suspected cocaine, as well as suspected restricted and prohibited handguns in an operation that connected several provinces.
On September 1, law enforcement seized 1,000 cannabis plants from an unlicensed operator, 47 kg of dried cannabis, 50 kg of cannabis oil, and 10 kg of cannabis-infused butter and dismantled a large extraction unit for cannabis oil.
Last month, police in Ontario announced at least two other large raids, seizing more than 15,000 cannabis plants seized in another large raid in Ontario.
On August 21, OPP dismantled what they say was a “large-scale, sophisticated” cannabis network between BC and Ontario, arresting eight people and seizing nearly 2,000 pounds of cannabis, along with other cannabis products in what police are calling Project Woolwich.
A recent raid in St Catharines last week was connected to this 12-month-long investigation.
On the same day in an unrelated raid, OPP Community Street Crime Unit officers from the Northumberland, Peterborough and Kawartha Lakes detachments said they arrested nineteen people in another large bust at a rural property in Trent Hills. Officers seized more than 600 pounds of cannabis and more than 1,800 plants.
In July of this year, Niagara Regional Police raided a large illegal marijuana grow operation in St. Catharines, seizing what they say was $34 million worth of cannabis. Niagara police say this is the largest marijuana grow operation they’ve ever investigated.
Raids of this nature in southern Ontario are not uncommon.
In September 2019, Niagara Regional Police dismantled a grow op with over 1,000 plants which they say had a street value of over a million dollars.
