Pubdate: Thu, 18 Jun 2009 Source: Intelligencer, The (CN ON) Copyright: 2009, Osprey Media Group Inc. Contact: http://www.intelligencer.ca/feedback1/LetterToEditor.aspx Website: http://www.intelligencer.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2332 Page: Front Page Author: W. Brice McVicar Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada) COPS: $10M DEALERS: 0 More than $10 million worth of marijuana plants have been seized following simultaneous police raids at six homes -- four of them in Belleville. The raids, which took place simultaneously Tuesday in Belleville, Kingston and Brighton, were part of a Project Longarm operation dubbed Project Industrious. Nearly 10,000 pot plants were seized along with high intensity lighting, irrigation and ventilation equipment. The culmination of a three-month long investigation, police involved in the project credited keen-eyed residents for alerting police to suspicious activity. "It's the citizens of Belleville who took the time out of their personal lives to report this suspicious activity working with police to make their neighbourhoods safer," Belleville police Chief Cory McMullan said during a press conference Wednesday. Raids on Hickory Grove, Chelsea Crescent, University Avenue and Tracey Park Drive in Belleville and on Redwood Crescent in Kingston and Seneca Avenue in Brighton took officers to neighbourhoods of newer, $250,000-plus homes where indoor grow operations were running in vacant houses. Ross Bingley, chief superintendent of the Organized Crime Enforcement Bureau of the OPP, said the operations were being conducted in high-valued homes for a reason -- stealth. "These locations had been set up in high value homes with real estate values between $250,000 and $350,000," Bingley said. He added it is not uncommon for indoor grow operations to be located in such residences as the people operating them "know no boundaries." "If they think they can set up in a high-end area and go undetected they will," he said. Though further arrests were being made in Toronto in connection to Project Industrious, police told reporters they had, by Wednesday, made only one arrest in relation to Tuesday's local raids. A 37-year-old man from Oshawa, Bingzhi Liu, has been charged with production of marijuana, possession for the purpose of trafficking and theft of hydro. An arrest warrant for charges of possession for the purpose of trafficking, production of marijuana and theft of hydro has been issued for 39-year-old Peng Zeng of Tracey Park Drive, Belleville. Bingley said Tuesday's raids and subsequent seizures will be felt by local criminals, especially considering the value of the drugs. "A $10-million seizure, obviously, at any point in time is a significant seizure. The problem is it's really hard to place a percentage," he said. "It will have significant impact on this specific part of the province as have several other succesful drug cases we've had. "Our problem is that, much to my shame, we have become a world-class marijuana producing country which has caused organized crime to seize that opportunity." Bingley said, in 2008, in the Bay of Quinte area, the drug enforcement section of the OPP, along with partner agencies, seized $31.3 million in illicit drugs, $817,000 in cash, more than $500,000 in property and assets, shut down 55 indoor and outdoor marijuana growing operations and charged 263 people with various drug-related offences. = = Six homes busted When officers executed search warrants in connection with Project Industrious yesterday they visited six homes in the region. Here are the locations raided and what was seized at each location: * [redacted], Brighton: 2,703 marijuana plants * [redacted], Belleville: 2,772 marijuana plants * [redacted], Kingston: 280 marijuana plants * [redacted], Belleville: 4,063 plants * [redacted], Belleville: seized evidence of a grow operation that was being dismantled * [redacted], Belleville: seized evidence of a grow operation that was being dismantled - --- MAP posted-by: Doug