TORONTO —
About 122,000 illegal cannabis plants in Ontario have been seized since July, provincial police confirm.
In a news release issued on Thursday, Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) said that they have made 195 arrests in connection with what they call a “takedown of several criminal enterprises exploiting the Health Canada medical, personal and designate cannabis production regime.”
The cannabis seized was worth more than $143 million, investigators said.
The OPP Regional Community Street Crime Unit—in conjunction with the OPP Organized Crime Enforcement Bureau (OCEB), Emergency Response Team (ERT) and Tactics and Rescue Unit (TRU)—made the arrests between July 1 and Oct. 15.
Throughout the investigation, officers executed 25 warrants in central Ontario, 24 in eastern Ontario and three in western Ontario. The OPP say the targets were involved in “large-scale, sophisticated illegal cannabis production, sale and distribution operations.”