Pubdate: Sat, 23 Jul 2005
Source: Packet & Times (CN ON)
Copyright: 2005, Osprey Media Group Inc.
Contact:  http://www.orilliapacket.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2397
Author: Amy Lazar
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

SIMCOE POT BOUND FOR U.S.

Marijuana Growers Trading Crop For Cocaine, Say Police

Ontario's big-time pot producers are making a fortune trading high-grade 
marijuana for American cocaine.

And it's happening right under our noses.

"The majority of the marijuana being grown in Ontario is destined for the 
U.S., and we have a number of cases where it is being traded for cocaine," 
said Det. Sgt. Jamie Ciotka, unit commander of the OPP's Huronia combined 
forces drug squad.

According to police, three pounds of marijuana can be traded for a pound of 
cocaine in the U.S.

In the last five years, police forces across Canada have seized an average 
of 1. 1 million pot plants a year, a 500 per cent increase since 1993.

But there are still millions of plants that make it over the border and are 
being traded for cash or cocaine.

In Ontario, a pound of marijuana has a street value of $1,800 to $2,400, 
but the same amount can be sold in the States for at least $5,000 (US).

Now, in the heat of summer, growers will be tending to their plants, 
preparing for harvest at the end of summer.

Once harvested, the goods begin to move south.

What isn't moving south is the operations themselves; grow-ops are becoming 
a problem north of Simcoe County, in places like North Bay, said Ciotka.

In 2003, the OPP busted 28 indoor grow operations in Simcoe County. Last 
year, police uncovered 21.

The number isn't as high because much of last year's drug-squad resources 
was used cleaning up the 30,000 marijuana plants, worth an estimated $30 
million, found at the former Molson brewery in Barrie, said Ciotka.

Barrie isn't the only place in Simcoe County with big grow-ops, however.

On the same day as the Barrie bust, police seized an additional 3,000 
plants with an estimated street value of $3 million in Oro-Medonte, in a 
normally vacant building at Highway 11 near Line 7.

Grow-ops are not only found in empty buildings, but in residential homes, too.

There are also crops growing in swampy areas, creeks and corn fields, 
Ciotka said.

"It's up to the imagination where they put the crops, but we've found it in 
all of those locations," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom