Trio charged after police seize nearly $800K worth of illegal cannabis plants

A room that police said was filled with hundreds of cannabis plants. (@OPP_WR / Twitter)

KITCHENER — Three people are facing a number of charges after a huge number of cannabis plants were seized from a Simcoe, Ont., address on Wednesday.

The Ontario Provincial Police in Haldimand and Norfolk County were joined by a number of other police services to carry out a search warrant.

Police said they seized about $796,000 in cannabis plants and another $20,400 in processed cannabis. Three people were taken into custody without incident.

In a video posted on Twitter on Wednesday, Const. Ed Sanchuk appeared to be standing in a warehouse of some kind, surrounded by "hundreds of marijuana plants."

Sanchuk said that the search warrant was carried out because of "ongoing community complaints."

All three are charged with "possession of cannabis for the purpose of selling and cultivate, propagate or harvest cannabis plant at a place that is not their dwelling house," a news release said.

"What you need to realize is that the plants that are grown outside of provincial and federal legislation often times go back into funding organized crime," Sanchuk said in the Twitter video.

The accused are expected in court at a later date. The charges against them haven't been proven in court.

In the video, police officers can be seen cutting the plants down, before a loader can be seen putting the plants into another truck.

Police said their investigation is ongoing and that they expected more arrests would be made. Anyone with information is asked to call the Norfolk OPP at 1-888-310-1122.