[Sativa]

Ottawa - Almost 400 police in Canada and the United States have dismantled a "criminal organisation" that grew and exported marijuana to the United States, authorities said on Wednesday.

Federal and local police carried out 34 raids in French-speaking Quebec province and maritime New Brunswick, arresting 69 people.

The major operation was "aimed at stopping the activities of a criminal organisation involved in the production and trafficking of marijuana as well as the export of this substance to the United States," the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said in a statement.

The network produced marijuana in various regions of Quebec and then exported it through New Brunswick to the United States, the Mounties said.

Quebec police spokesperson Chantal Mackels told AFP: "We found houses full of marijuana plants. Large quantities of pot were grown and dried in these houses, before being exported."

The main suspects face charges of producing, possessing, trafficking, conspiring to traffic and exporting drugs, and gangsterism. A dozen suspects are still at large, Mackels said.

In March, police seized 9 567 marijuana plants, 93,85 kilograms of marijuana and more than CAN$18 000 (about R117 000) in initial searches. Seventeen people were arrested then too.



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Website: IOL: Police bust marijuana trafficking ring