Thursday, January 9, 2003

$200,000 WORTH OF DRUGS LOCATED IN ECHO BAY RAID
Echo Bay, Ont.,

The Sault Ste Marie Joint Forces Drug Unit and members of Sault Ste Marie OPP executed a search warrant yesterday and recovered drugs and equipment estimated to be worth over $200,000.

Just prior to 12:00 noon yesterday, officers from the Joint Forces Drug Unit, assisted by members of Sault Ste Marie OPP, uncovered an elaborate marihuana growing operation at a residence on Lake George Road, just east of Echo Bay.

Police also located a Cannabis resin extracting set-up in the bedroom of the house. A further search of the home also located three long guns and ammunition that were unsafely stored. The guns and ammunition were seized.

Some of the items seized in this raid are 189 marihuana plants, a quantity of cultivated marihuana that was in the process of being turned into cannabis resin (hash oil), cannabis resin, and a quantity of cultivated marihuana.

An twenty-year-old male from Lake George Road and an eighteen-year-old female from Sault Ste Marie are in police custody and will appear in bail court this afternoon.

Charges against the two included the following:

1. Production of marihuana
2. Production of Cannabis Resin
3. Possession of Marihuana for trafficking
4. Possession of Cannabis Resin for trafficking
5. Possession of marihuana
6. Possession of Cannabis Resin
7. Unsafe Storage of a Firearm
8. Unsafe Storage of ammunition
9. Unauthorized possession of a firearm

UPDATE TO ECHO BAY DRUG SEIZURE
Echo Bay, Ont.,

The identity of the two accused people are twenty-year-old Jesse Robert McMillan of Laird Township, east of Echo Bay and eighteen-year-old Tricia Ann Mowbray of Sault Ste Marie, Ontario.