On 18 September 2008 Ontario Provincial Police found some 40,000 marijuana plants at a farm on B-Line Road in Laurentian Valley Township near Pembroke, about 150 kilometres west of Ottawa, during the execution of a search warrant.[1] The provincial police news release called it the largest grow operation in Canada’s history, one-third larger than the 30,000-plant former Molson brewery operation in Barrie.[1]
Hidden in the corn
The plants were hidden between rows of corn on a 43-hectare farm, about half of it cornfield, with a buffer zone of corn-only field around the five-or-six-football-fields plot where the six-foot cannabis plants grew.[1][2] Sgt. Kristine Rae said officers spent the whole weekend removing the crop by hand.[1] It took at least six shipping containers on flatbed trucks to cart the plants away, later buried at a secure site, and police valued the seizure at about $40 million.[1][2]
Officers said the crop was watered by plastic tubing fed from a pond and an above-ground pool, and a double garage behind the farmhouse had been set up to dry plants, some already being harvested.[1][2] At least 30 police and auxiliary officers took part in the operation.[2] Land registry records showed the property at 1970 B-Line Road was bought by Viet Ha for $190,000 on 1 November 2005.[2]
