cannabisnews.com: Nine Due in Court Today Over Brewery Grow-op Bust





Nine Due in Court Today Over Brewery Grow-op Bust
Posted by CN Staff on February 11, 2004 at 08:14:48 PT
By Timothy Appleby and John Saunders
Source: Globe and Mail 
Barrie, Toronto -- The Brewery Nine, charged in Canada's most spectacular grow-op bust, are due back in court today with one man emerging as the leading defendant and all nine now united behind a lawyer who says they are not talking to police."Nobody's said anything," Randall Barrs, a Toronto defence lawyer specializing in drug cases, said in an interview. "They're co-operating by giving their names and addresses. That's proper co-operation from our perspective."
They were arrested Jan. 10 when Barrie and Ontario Provincial Police officers raided a hydroponic marijuana operation using beer-making tanks in a former Molson brewery on Barrie's south side. Today's court hearing is the first since they were freed on bail. The venture appears to have escaped detection for more than a year, possibly in the guise of an indoor fish farm. The defendants are eight men aged 23 to 49 from five Ontario centres -- Stayner, Corunna, St. Catharines, Niagara Falls and Toronto -- and one whose home base is not as clear.According to vehicle finance records, Michael DiCicco, 60, leases a black 2003 Chevrolet Silverado pickup in the name of Barrie Good Fish Co., but the home address listed for him is a dead end. It is a modest brick bungalow near a factory district in Etobicoke, on Toronto's west side, owned and occupied by a pensioner who says he does not know Mr. DiCicco. Mr. Barrs said his client was living in an outbuilding on the brewery property before the raid and has since been in and out of hospital with heart trouble. "I don't know about any address in Etobicoke. I just know he's out on bail. He's living with his sister but right now he's still at the hospital, I believe."The fish company, too, is hard to track down. It has no phone listing and does not show up in Ontario or federal business registries, although a real estate broker for the brewery's current owner, Fercan Developments Inc., has described it as one of the tenants in the space where the grow op was found. The broker said that Fercan was told the tanks would be used to raise fish.At the brewery yesterday, there were about a dozen vehicles in the parking lot but no sign of police activity. At a paper-strewn desk, Fercan representative James Hayes dismissed requests for information. "Now you're beginning to bother me," he said. "I said no comment. I meant no comment."The situation is doubly awkward for Fercan's Toronto-based owner, Vincent De Rosa, whose family owns a building north of Barrie where a second grow op was found the same day as the brewery raid. He has been accused of no wrongdoing in either case.In the brewery case, Mr. DiCicco is the senior defendant in bail as well as age. His bail was set at $50,000, the others' at $10,000 to $20,000. Despite complaints from family members outside the courtroom about the difficulty of raising the money, all were bailed out. The charge they face, production and possession of a controlled substance, has yet to be proved, and they have the right to keep silent, one often exercised in such cases.Superintendent Ron Allen, head of RCMP drug enforcement in the Toronto area, said police very rarely get co-operation from alleged marijuana crop-sitters."That's because they know that, historically, the sentences have not been very long and they feel that anything the courts can do to them would be very minor compared to [what they risk from] the organized-crime people who are behind these [operations]. . . . Why would you co-operate with me if you're going to end up in a dumpster, dead? And there have been deaths like that," he said in an interview.Mr. Barrs, whose office is on Prince Arthur Avenue in Toronto's Bloor-Avenue Road area, showed up in Barrie to represent six defendants and has since gathered the rest, displacing two other lawyers. He said he has been defending people in drug cases since the 1970s. "I've built up a huge clientele over the years. You get clients basically by referral. Of the Barrie clients, he said: "Most of these guys are clean or if they have any records either they're dated or very minor. It's not like a bunch of career criminals."Mr. Barrs played down the seriousness of the case. "Most people find it very humorous. Most people aren't up in arms about it, even the police. It's not like they're getting out the phone books and whacking these guys around."Note: One emerges as leading defendant; all suspects united behind one lawyer. Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)Author: Timothy Appleby and John SaundersPublished: Wednesday, February 11, 2004 - Page A15 Copyright: 2004 The Globe and Mail CompanyContact: letters globeandmail.caWebsite: http://www.globeandmail.com/Related Articles:Lighten Up on Pot Growers, Canada's on a Roll http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18161.shtmlA 'Growing Like Weeds', Indeed!http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18152.shtmlPot Bust Worth $30 Million, Police Sayhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18130.shtml 
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Comment #1 posted by Sam Adams on February 11, 2004 at 08:38:50 PT
Cover up
In the words of Warren Beatty's "Bulworth" character, "Isn't it obvious?"The growers were WORKING for the police, that's why they're not TALKING to them now.  Doesn't this sound more like a threat than a factual statement?>>>"Superintendent Ron Allen, head of RCMP drug enforcement in the Toronto area, said police very rarely get co-operation from alleged marijuana crop-sitters."That's because they know that, historically, the sentences have not been very long and they feel that anything the courts can do to them would be very minor compared to [what they risk from] the organized-crime people who are behind these [operations]. . . . Why would you co-operate with me if you're going to end up in a dumpster, dead? And there have been deaths like that," he said in an interview."It's nothing new. If you ever watch any of those 70's "Blaxploitation" movies, in the end, the top guys owning the cocaine ring are always the white police.  You can't tell me there was a huge, illegal factory right in the middle of a major city and no one even noticed it. C'mon, the signs of commerce are easy to recognize, even a guy selling eighth's out of his apartment is pretty obvious.  Why do you think the cops fight agains MJ reform? You really think they enjoy busting potsmokers?
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