About 200 Ticino cantonal and municipal officers carried out five raids across the canton between 13 March and 7 April 2003 in Operation Indoor, seizing 130,000 cannabis plants from 19 greenhouses along with 404 kilograms of dried cannabis.[1] Eight hemp shops were shut and eight trust and legal offices searched in the same sweep, from Biasca to Mendrisio and from Bellinzona to Lugano.[1] Police arrested 25 people, 15 of whom were still in custody when the results were presented at Rivera on 10 April; 25 more were reported while at liberty and 15 others questioned.[1]
Police put the plants’ minimum yield at about 1,950 kilograms of marijuana worth 19.5 million francs at retail, on top of the 404 kilograms already dried and ready for export to Italy.[1] The confiscated plants averaged 10 to 20 percent THC, far above the 0.3 percent allowed for legal hemp, and investigators said much of the trade crossed into Italy on foot over old smugglers’ paths in loads of 10 to 50 kilograms.[2]
Why then
Officers said one aim was to seize indoor-grown plants before warmer weather moved them outside, and that the crackdown, launched after public outcry over the booming hemp trade, would continue.[2] Lawyers and financial agents were also pulled in for questioning over offences including money laundering.[2]
