Ontario Provincial Police officers seized more than 8,500 cannabis plants and charged 10 people in two drug seizures in Rideau Lakes Township earlier this week.
The majority of the accused are from the Toronto area, police noted in reporting the busts on Friday afternoon.
On Wednesday, members of the OPP’s East Region Community Street Crime Unit (CSCU) seized more than 6,500 cannabis plants near Toledo.
CSCU officers, with help from the OPP’s Organized Crime Enforcement Bureau (OCEB), Emergency Response Team, Canine Unit and Assets Forfeiture Unit carried out a search warrant on Townline Road in Rideau Lakes Township.
Along with the plants, which were being grown both indoors and outdoors, officers seized a high-end sport utility vehicle, generators and a variety of growing equipment, said police.
Officers arrested three people at the scene and charged them under the Cannabis Act with cultivating, propagating or harvesting more than four cannabis plants.
Jinrong Chen, 66, and Jie Lin, 27, of Rideau Lakes Township, as well as Na Zhu, 44, of Markham, were charged and released from custody, scheduled to appear in court in Brockville on Oct. 30.
Police called Hydro One to the location and staff with the utility determined some electrical wiring was unsafe. The power was disconnected.
Meanwhile, provincial police also seized more than 2,000 cannabis plants in another Rideau Lakes operation, also on Wednesday.
The same branches of the OPP carried out a warrant on Whitmore Road, west of Frankville.
In addition to the cannabis plants, officers also seized a pickup truck and a backhoe, as well as growing equipment.