Police in Toronto and York Region arrested 42 people in raids on 9 and 10 September 2004 that closed a months-long investigation, Project Caesar, into a network that set up indoor grow operations and sold the harvest back through two garden-supply shops.[1] The investigation, running since January 2004, focused on people linked to Caesar’s Garden Centre in North York and Jade Garden Trading in Scarborough, who supplied growers with equipment, expertise and seedlings and took back mature plants for sale.[1][2]

Officers dismantled 36 grow operations across Toronto and York Region, seizing 16,724 marijuana plants with a stated street value above $16 million, 56 kilograms of dried and packaged marijuana valued above $1 million, and $150,000 in cash as proceeds of crime.[1] An earlier search on 28 May 2004 at an address on Kenhatch Boulevard in Toronto had netted 70 pounds (about 31.8 kilograms) of dried marijuana in one-pound bags and one arrest.[1] Staff Inspector Dan Hayes said the project would significantly disrupt the spread of illegal grow operations, while warning that light sentences kept them flourishing.[1] The case was still before the courts in March 2005.[2]