Quebec raids target reserve grow-ops

More than 400 police officers who swooped in on eight marijuana grow-op greenhouses and seized roughly 1,200 pot plants on a Quebec reserve yesterday also picked up ammunition magazines for AK-47 automatic assault rifles, police said.

A total of 13 drug raids were carried out in the Kanesatake First Nation near Oka, about 40 kilometres west of Montreal.

Inspector Lino Maurizio of the Quebec provincial police pegged the estimated street value of the hydroponic pot at more than $1-million.

Six of the eight greenhouses had pot production underway, with plantings in various stages of growth, he said. The two others had all the required gear in place.

Officers also seized an undisclosed number of ammunition magazines used in Kalashnikovs, Insp. Maurizio said.

He said he was not aware of whether any of the assault rifles themselves had been confiscated. But, he added, raiders also pulled in several .357-calibre handguns, an M-35 armoured car, a bulldozer and various hunting rifles.

The raids send a message that "violence and intimidation will no longer be tolerated" at Kanesatake, said Inspector Sylvain Joyal of the RCMP.

A manhunt continued late yesterday for Jason Gabriel, at whose home one of the greenhouses was found.

Mr. Gabriel, who is known to police, eluded investigators as RCMP and Quebec provincial police officers were deployed in a military-style operation that began at 4:55 a. m. sharp.

After searching 13 locations, police arrested 13 people, including Gary Gabriel, Barry Simon and Vincent Daoust.

Police were targeting those three, in addition to Jason Gabriel, with outstanding warrants for their arrest for crimes against persons.

The raids were designed to put a significant dent in a major organized-crime network of marijuana production and distribution centred in Kanesatake, Chief Gorden McGregor of the Kitigan Zibi Police Service told reporters.

Chief McGregor, from the Algonquin First Nation community of Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg, about 150 kilometres

north of Ottawa, is president of the First Nations Chiefs of Police Association of Quebec.

The operation, underway for almost a year and code-named Cerro, involved "seven or eight" First Nations investigators as part of the Aboriginal Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, Chief Mc-Gregor said.

The unit was established by the Mounties in 2004 "to lead a high-level fight against criminal organizations operating on Quebec's Aboriginal territories," he said.

Detonations were heard during the morning. However, no police officer fired any shots, no injuries were reported, and it was not certain that the detonations were from a firearm, Insp. Joyal said.