Law Enforcement Agencies Team Up for Outdoor Marihuana Eradication Operation

HAMILTON, ON, Sept. 21 /CNW/ - Five police services, with support from the Department of National Defence, teamed up to conduct a five day outdoor marihuana eradication operation to locate outdoor marihuana grows in the Southwestern Ontario area. Dubbed Project OSABOT, the initiative took place between September 14th, 2009 and September 18th, 2009 .

The Marihuana Eradication Team was comprised of police officers from the Brantford Police Service, Hamilton Police Service, Niagara Regional Police, Ontario Provincial Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

The federal, provincial, and municipal police services shared information gathered from numerous sources to make strategic seizures against specific marihuana grow areas. The services also combined human and technical resources to make the project cost-efficient and effective. The partnership provided an opportunity for the participating police services to share training techniques and intelligence on drug issues in their communities.

Through a combined effort, larger amounts of marihuana can be seized at one time and removed from the fields before it reaches the streets, making marihuana less available to drug users and reducing the risk to our communities.

The 2009 Marihuana Eradication Team was formed to locate and dismantle outdoor marihuana grows throughout the Hamilton and Niagara Regions as well as Brant, Norfolk , and Haldimand counties. Approximately 4,700 marihuana plants were seized and destroyed over the five-day period. The total value of the marihuana plants seized during the five day period has an estimate value of close to 4.7 million dollars .

There has been several teams that conducted similar successful initiatives throughout Ontario during the months of August and September. Those earlier operations were conducted out of the Kitchener, Kingston and London RCMP Detachments.

Photos are available on request.

For further information: Cpl. Pierre Audet, RCMP Hamilton Niagara Regional Detachment, Drug Enforcement Section, Office: [phone]