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.
The greenhouse facility was dismantled over a three day period, seizing hundreds of plants in a large, commercial greenhouse.
Police say that due to the complexity of this operation, the investigation remains on-going and charges are pending.
This is yet another large scale illicit cannabis raids in Ontario over the last several months. 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.
“This is a significant amount of drugs associated to an illegal drug operation,” says Chief Gary Conn about this most recent seizure. “Our officers, including members of our Street Crimes and Drug Unit, worked on this project for several days. It required the use of many resources including our front line officers and I am very pleased to see (once again) an investigation of this magnitude come to a successful conclusion, with the seizure of such an extraordinary amount of illicit drugs being removed from our streets.”
