More than 60,000 plants seized in Norfolk pot bust
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Norfolk County was the focus of a major enforcement action in August that resulted in the seizure of 101,000 illegal marijuana plants and property worth an estimated $42 million.
Project Woolwich culminated Aug. 13 with the execution of 26 search warrants in Simcoe, Canfield in Haldimand County, Niagara Falls, St. Catharines, Jordan, Markham, Welland, Leamington, Scarborough, Richmond Hill and British Columbia.
Eight people were arrested.
Along with the plants, items seized include 1,921 pounds of dried flower tops, 24 pounds of hashish and cannabis shatter, hundreds of illegal cannabis vaping pens, cocaine, handguns, a rifle and a shotgun, grow equipment worth $1 million, high-end jewellery, four vehicles, more than $3 million in Canadian and American currency, and $380,000 worth of Chinese and South Korean currency.
Word of the seizure emerged on Sept. 15 in a report to Norfolk council from Jim Millson, a former staff sergeant with the Norfolk OPP now serving as the county’s supervisor of bylaw enforcement. In his report, Millson said more than 60,000 of the plants seized last month came from a single greenhouse at an undisclosed location in Norfolk.
Const. Ed Sanchuk, a spokesperson for the Norfolk OPP, said the seizure Millson referred to was part of a broader investigation that involved numerous divisions of the OPP, York Regional Police, Niagara Regional Police, the Waterloo Regional Police Service, the Hamilton Police Service, the RCMP, and the Ontario Fire Marshals Office.
The lead investigator is Det. Sgt. Jim Walker of the OPP’s Organized Crime Enforcement Bureau.
“Project Woolwich put a significant dent in this operation,” said Walker. “We’re not naive enough to think that there are not other, similar operations like this out there.”
Walker said massive grow operations are flourishing in Ontario and elsewhere in Canada due to “loop holes” in federal regulations governing the legal, third-party production of cannabis for individuals with prescriptions for medical marijuana.
In his report on cannabis enforcement in Norfolk County, Millson said “designated growers” are permitted to produce up to 1,500 plants a year per prescription up to a maximum of four individuals. This means a designated grower, under current rules, can legally produce 6,000 plants a year.
“Police enforcement efforts across southern Ontario – and recently in Norfolk – indicate that many growers are producing well in excess of the maximum licensed number of plants,” Millson says. “It has become clear that the excess being produced by designated growers is being funneled to the illicit market, which is mostly controlled by organized crime.”
Millson adds that violations of the federal law are acute in Norfolk relative to other jurisdictions. Odour and light-pollution complaints spiked across Norfolk after a court ruling several years ago cleared the path for the current designated-grower framework.
Millson notes that authorities are aware of at least 70 designated-grow operations in Norfolk, nearly all of them in greenhouses without odour-mitigation technology.
“By comparison, Brant (County) advises they are aware of six grow operations with just two that are a problem and being investigated,” Millson says. “Haldimand (County) has just a few as well.”
To date, Norfolk has investigated 12 designated-grow operations for violations of zoning setbacks designed to mitigate land-use conflicts in built-up areas. Norfolk has laid 56 charges against 28 individuals and has obtained convictions, including a court order to cease and desist.
Walker says the large-scale production of illegal cannabis is an emerging irritant in Canada-U.S relations. The cannabis seized Aug. 13, he said, was destined for the United States. This, Walker said, has spurred a reciprocal flow of hard narcotics and illegal firearms into Canada.
“If there is room for improvement, this would be one area,” Walker said.
Assisting with Project Woolwich were the Department of Homeland Security in the United States, the Border Enforcement Security Task Force, Canada Border Services Agency, and the Canada Revenue Agency.
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