Members of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) East Region Community Street Crime Unit (CSCU) have seized nearly 2300 cannabis plants in Sophiasburgh Ward in Prince Edward County.

CSCU officers, along with members of the Prince Edward County OPP Detachment, OPP Emergency Response Team (ERT) and the OPP Organized Crime Enforcement Bureau (OCEB) executed the search warrant on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2020 on Jericho Road.

Law enforcement seized nearly 2300 cannabis plants, two tractors, a number of generators, a variety of power tools, a rifle, Canadian currency, and a variety of equipment used for the production of cannabis. Four people were arrested in the area.

The following individuals were arrested and charged with cultivating, propagating or harvesting more than four cannabis plants and possession of proceeds obtained by crime: Chaofeng Yu, age 42, no fixed address, Xiaofei Chu, age 34 from Scarborough, Zhenmin Zhang, age 58, no fixed address, and Heng Zhao, age 39 from Scarborough.

The accused individuals have been released and are scheduled to appear at the Ontario Court of Justice in Picton in December, 2020.

There have been several similar raids on cannabis farms in Ontario over the past month.

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.

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.