RCMP take down ‘complex’ cannabis network with over 17,000 plants in Ontario [Video]

Ontario RCMP announced Thursday they have charged six people and destroyed nearly 17,000 cannabis plants across three large-scale illegal grow sites in the province, part of a “complex illicit cannabis production and distribution network.”

Police say an investigation began in the summer of 2022 after the Ontario Provincial Police referred the matter to the Mounties.

The RCMP estimates the three grow sites could have an annual production value of more than $16 million, and each of the sites was staffed with full-time, live-in workers who did not have legal status to grow cannabis in Canada.

Mounties say a criminal network exported the illicit cannabis to the United States and Hong Kong, with further plans to distribute it to Europe.

They say the network was also linked to two other illicit cannabis production sites in Ontario that were dismantled by the OPP and the Toronto Police Service.

The RCMP alleges millions …