Toronto Police have raided one of the largest marijuana growing operations ever uncovered in the city.
The massive grow-op, located in the Dufferin St.-Hwy. 401 area, was capable of producing more than $50 million worth of pot annually.
Investigators said they began probing a warehouse at the rear of a tile store located across the street from Yorkdale Mall after receiving a Crime Stoppers tip.
Officers raided the operation at 120 Cartwright Ave. on Tuesday and discovered nearly 14,000 pot plants, in various stages of growth, inside a two-storey section of a warehouse behind HR Nature Stone & Tiles.
“This is the largest marijuana grow-op we’ve seen in at least five years,” said Staff-Insp. Mario DiTommaso after the drug lab was dismantled.
“It was a very, very sophisticated operation complete with hydro bypass to avoid detection,” he said Wednesday.
DiTommaso said the plants seized were worth about $14 million on the street.
Given the hydroponic equipment found on the premises, the operators could have grown a crop of similar size three to four time per year, bringing in anywhere from $42 million to $56 million annually, he said.
“Marijuana is a very valuable commodity and it attracts a criminal element into this community,” DiTommaso said, explaining pot is a factor in many of the city’s murders.
The tile business at the front of the industrial building is a legitimate business, DiTommaso said.
The marijuana plants — rows upon rows of them, each in its own pot — were stuffed into two levels on the southeast side of the building.
The soil-based operation even used conveyor belts to move plants from one area to another as they grew. And it had a professionally installed commercial grade hydro bypass connected directly to an exterior transformer.
The huge operation, which is believed to have been up and running about a year, would have required at least six people working 24 hours a day, DiTommaso said.
When police raided the warehouse there was nobody around.
One person has so far been taken into custody, but charges were not immediately laid.
“Our investigation is continuing,” DiTommaso said. “We expect to make further arrests.”
http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2010/12/01/16395291.html
The massive grow-op, located in the Dufferin St.-Hwy. 401 area, was capable of producing more than $50 million worth of pot annually.
Investigators said they began probing a warehouse at the rear of a tile store located across the street from Yorkdale Mall after receiving a Crime Stoppers tip.
Officers raided the operation at 120 Cartwright Ave. on Tuesday and discovered nearly 14,000 pot plants, in various stages of growth, inside a two-storey section of a warehouse behind HR Nature Stone & Tiles.
“This is the largest marijuana grow-op we’ve seen in at least five years,” said Staff-Insp. Mario DiTommaso after the drug lab was dismantled.
“It was a very, very sophisticated operation complete with hydro bypass to avoid detection,” he said Wednesday.
DiTommaso said the plants seized were worth about $14 million on the street.
Given the hydroponic equipment found on the premises, the operators could have grown a crop of similar size three to four time per year, bringing in anywhere from $42 million to $56 million annually, he said.
“Marijuana is a very valuable commodity and it attracts a criminal element into this community,” DiTommaso said, explaining pot is a factor in many of the city’s murders.
The tile business at the front of the industrial building is a legitimate business, DiTommaso said.
The marijuana plants — rows upon rows of them, each in its own pot — were stuffed into two levels on the southeast side of the building.
The soil-based operation even used conveyor belts to move plants from one area to another as they grew. And it had a professionally installed commercial grade hydro bypass connected directly to an exterior transformer.
The huge operation, which is believed to have been up and running about a year, would have required at least six people working 24 hours a day, DiTommaso said.
When police raided the warehouse there was nobody around.
One person has so far been taken into custody, but charges were not immediately laid.
“Our investigation is continuing,” DiTommaso said. “We expect to make further arrests.”
http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2010/12/01/16395291.html
