Four men from southern Ontario face drug trafficking charges as the police investigation expands into a major marijuana grow operation near Markstay and St. Charles.
Police say they have seized thousands of marijuana plants, worth a street value of as much as $10 to $15 million, from farms in Markstay-Warren and St. Charles in the past week.
Li Hui Huang, 33, of Scarborough, was charged recently with producing large quantities of marijuana after police raided a farm and found as many as 5,000 plants.
Another three men were arrested over the weekend and face drug production charges following another raid on a Markstay farm, where police say they found 4,500 plants.
Police found another 5,600 plants at another nearby farm, but no one has been arrested in relation to that seizure.
Police usually list the street value of a marijuana plant at about $1,000 per plant when fully grown, meaning the series of busts has resulted in a haul of more than 15,000 plants with a potential street value of about $15 million.
Also charged are Paul Torrens, 59, of Cobourg; Wei-Kuang Hsiung, 41, of Markham and Jianguang Chen, 28, of Scarborough.
