After raiding dozens of illegal cannabis grow-ops in recent months, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) say Health Canada has a loophole in its medical cannabis registration system that's fuelling criminal activity.
Between July and October, OPP seized about 122,000 cannabis plants worth more than $143 million, more than $75,000 in cash, 36 firearms and about half a million in proceeds from crime. OPP said 195 people were arrested. A significant portion of those arrests were spread across rural eastern Ontario near Ottawa, CBC News found.
Not all of the 52 search warrants police conducted are linked, said Jim Walker, detective inspector with OPP's organized crime enforcement bureau.
"But it does show and speak to the size and scope [of] the illegal production sites, and they are all around the province right now," said Walker.
Read more at cbc.ca