Police officers from city, regional, provincial and federal forces swept down on home-grow marijuana operations from Nova Scotia to British Columbia on Wednesday 30 January 2002.[1] By half past three in the afternoon Eastern time, police had executed 149 search warrants, made 136 arrests and laid 289 charges, seizing a total of 46,796 plants.[1] About 500 officers from more than 20 agencies took part, also seizing growing equipment worth about $3.2 million; police reported no violence but said some weapons were seized.[1][2] The joint-forces sweep went under the name Operation Green Sweep.[3][2] Further raids were planned that evening in Quebec and British Columbia with about 40 warrants still to be executed, and officers found 28 children in the raided homes, placing them with relatives or children’s aid services.[1]
Guelph and Wellington County
Wellington County OPP and Guelph Police raided four houses and one apartment that Wednesday, confiscating $1.2 to $1.5 million worth of marijuana and more than $100,000 in growing equipment at three of the houses.[3] Three people were arrested and police sought a fourth.[3] Every room but the bathroom and kitchen of a Fife Road house was filled with marijuana at various stages of growth, about 800 plants with an estimated $800,000 in marijuana confiscated there.[3] The Fife Road homeowner, 52-year-old Hung Manh Nguyen, was released on $30,000 bail facing charges of possession for trafficking, cultivation and theft of electricity.[3] Van Luyen Tran, 35, described by police as the caretaker of the County Road 124 growing operation, stayed in jail on charges of unlawful production, possession for the purpose of trafficking and theft of electricity.[3]
Police said growers routinely bypassed electricity meters to power heat lamps, creating fire and carbon-monoxide hazards for neighbours and emergency crews.[1][3]
