Police in central Alberta said five people have been arrested, after a grow-op believed to be worth millions was found and dismantled.
RCMP in Olds and the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team (ALERT) said a total of 2,137 plants (valued at about $2.5 million) were found inside a home and Quonset huts located on an Olds property.
The grow-op was dismantled February 12, after Olds RCMP officers followed up on reports of suspicious activity at the property.
The home was an authorized medicinal grow-op site, but the terms of the license had been violated by the excessive number of plants.
Five people were arrested – three men and two women, ranging in age from 25-years-old to 58-years-old. Four children were also in the home at the time of the police search, and Children and Family Services assisted with the investigation.
Investigators also seized $40,000 in cash proceeds of crime.
The home has been deemed uninhabitable by Alberta Health Inspectors.
ALERT said the plant count could make this case the largest grow-op dismantled by the ALERT Green Team in more than two years – back in December 2012, a 2,233 grow-op in Parkland County was dismantled.
The largest grow-op in the province was found in High Prairie in August 2010 – in that case, 6,500 plants were seized.
