[420 Girl]

You are contributing to organized crime if you buy illegal drugs, Chief Armand La Barge said today.

York Region's top cop made the comment during a news conference in East Gwillimbury where police provided more details about raided on 18 marijuana grow operations.

Marijuana, jugs of plant food, garden hoses, fans and other gear - including two vehicles - seized in connection with the investigation, was displayed by police.

"For many years, there has been a debate in this country about legalizing or decriminalizing marijuana. I'm here to say marijuana is illegal because it is dangerous, it's not dangerous because it is illegal," Chief La Barge said.

"Drugs have had a significant impact on crime in the past and they continue to play a significant role in today's society."

In 2006, an anonymous tipster told police about several pot grows operating across the GTA and gave officers the name of a business that sold the equipment and materials required to run an indoor grow-op, police said.

A probe into Tropical Distribution, in the Hwy. 400 and Steeles Avenue area, led police to pot growers they say were being facilitated by the business.

Tropical Distribution originally operated in Concord, Chief La Barge said.

Between May 2006 and April 2008, police linked the business to 18 grow-ops.

Employees of Tropical Distribution supplied the operators of indoor pot grows with equipment, knowledge and chemicals required to set up and maintain indoor grow-ops throughout the GTA, Insp. Tom Carrique said, adding they also tried "to work as brokers" of cloned plants.

Two vans would be loaded with equipment, taken to a parking lot in some cases and left. They would then be picked up by the operators of the indoor grow operations, taken to their locations and the equipment would be unloaded. The vans would then be reloaded with chemicals, soil and wasted plant trimmings.

"Those would then be deposited back at Tropical Distribution and make their way to landfill sites around the Greater Toronto Area," Insp. Carrique said.

On April 17, Tropical Distribution and a Newmarket home were raided and a 41-year-old Newmarket man and a 29-year-old Newmarket woman were charged with 18 counts of production of a controlled substance, 18 counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking, 17 counts of theft of electricity and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence. A 28-year-old Mississauga man was also charged with three counts each of production of a controlled substance, possession for the purpose of trafficking, theft of electricity and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence.

Seven of the homes raided in the investigation were in York, including:

. Thornhill Woods Drive, Vaughan;

. Keffer Circle, Newmarket;

. Pieta Place, Vaughan;

. Benjamin Hood Crescent, Vaughan;

. McClellan Way, Aurora;

. Dunlop Street, Richmond Hill; and

. Newbury Drive, Newmarket.

Wednesday, a 31-year-old Newmarket man was charged with fraud over $5,000 and two counts of uttering forged documents after investigators determined the mortgage on the Keffer Circle home was found to have been obtained fraudulently, police said.

In total, 31 people have been arrested and charged with more than 200 drug and criminal offences in the case, Chief La Barge said.

An estimated $12.5-million worth of marijuana and about $250,000 worth of offence-related property were seized during the probe.

Three sentences have been handed out thus far: a six-month jail sentence, a three-month jail sentence and a $5,000 fine, Insp. Carrique said. While 700 plants were seized during one raid, those charged with growing them were acquitted.

Marijuana grow operations and drug labs generate millions of dollars every year in York, Chief La Barge said.

"They do invite an element of criminality to our community that is simply not welcome here - criminality in the form of murders and robberies, home invasions and assaults, to name but a few, " he said.

While an indoor gardening supplier played a key role in the operation, the owner of another such business says its unfortunate the industry has been stigmatized by such stories.

"It's very unfortunate we have to deal with that in our industry," said Noel Metcalf, who owns Newmarket's Yield of Dreams Indoor Gardens. "I'm more interested in the Canadian gardner who is interested in the plants in this room."

Shortly after the news conference, while standing in a room filled with plants with wide waxy leaves, orchids and a pineapple he says was grown indoors, Mr. Metcalf said some of his clients are simply people concerned about nutrition. They may grow vegetables inside because they don't want their food cultivated with pesticides.

"My children, they grew up in this room," he said.

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