www.independentfreepress.com Editorial..................... 6 Sports .................... 10 Calendar ...... 11, 12 Directory ............... 13 Classifieds.....14, 15 50 Cents (+ GST) Circulation: 22,800 GLT TURNS 50 Georgetown Little Theatre celebrates milestone 4-PAGE SECTION DAY OF CHAMPS Kinsmen Girls Softball League crowns its league champs PAGE 10 28 Pages Halton Hills' award-winning newspaper THE INDEPENDENT & FREE PRESS TUESDAY, September 21, 2010 Police bust grow ops worth $2M By LISA TALLYN Staff Writer How now brown cow? Seven-year-old D.J. Lawrence of Rockwood gives five-monthold calf R K Rosie a stern eye on its way to a fifth-place ribbon during the cattle confirmation competition.There was a "very good turnout" on the weekend, said Jim Richmond of the Acton Agricultural Society. The Dufferin Community Centre was jammed for the Elvis show Saturday night and there were a record number of entries in the antique tractor and 4x4 truck pulls. For more photos see page 4. Photo by Jon Borgstrom Five people are facing charges after Halton Police seized approximately 1,500 marijuana plants with an estimated street value of $2 million in grow operations, most of them outdoors, throughout Halton Region over the past few weeks. Police unveiled a cube van full of the large plants to the media Friday at the 20 Division police station in Oakville, and said they had seized another tractor-trailer full of plants. Det. Sgt. Nishan Duraiappah of Halton Police Drugs and Morality Unit said most of the grow operations were found in rural areas in Halton Hills and Milton, but police also seized plants in Burlington and Oakville. In July police asked the community to be on the lookout for outdoor marijuana grow operations and received numerous tips about suspicious activity and possible illegal grow operations. The tips and information from other police investigations resulted in police finding about 20 grow operations. Police undertook an extensive outdoor eradication initiative throughout the rural areas Tuesday. "Many of these locations are rural locations. They are quite often amongst crops, in most cases it's corn because it has the greatest height," said Duraiappah. "Some people choose to grow on their own property. The majority of plants we have seized are planted on a third-party basis. They See LARGE, pg. 3 $&+,//(6 0$='$ 2I 0LOWRQ 6WHHOHV $YH 0LOWRQ 21 /7 ; Vi s i t o u r s h o w r o o m Quality & Service You Can Count On! 332 Guelph Street, Georgetown (Across from Canadian Tire) 905-702-0885 www.bathstudio .ca 3KRQH 3KRQH 7ROO IU )D[ ZZZDFKLOOHVPD]GDFD LQIR#DFKLOOHVPD]GDFD · your window & door professionals · 341 Guelph St., Unit 3 Georgetown 905.873.0236 www.buy-wise.ca info@buy-wise.ca · awarded readers choice 14 times ·