Vince DeRosa had big plans when his company bought the Molson brewery plant in Barrie, Ont., two years ago. He intended to set up a bottled water operation and a coffee company in the building and lease out the remaining space, said Nancy Tuckett, director of Barrie's economic development office.
"As a landowner he had chosen to be somewhat entrepreneurial as well as being a landlord of a building that size," Ms. Tuckett said.
But over the weekend, police discovered a massive marijuana growing operation in a large section of the former brewery.
As nine men appeared in court yesterday in Barrie charged in connection with the largest, most sophisticated indoor marijuana-cultivation operation ever dismantled in Canada, provincial police continued their investigation and expect to lay additional charges.
All but one of the men was allowed to go free on $10,000 cash bail -- providing the families could scrounge up the money.
Another hearing was set for this morning.
Property records show that a subsidiary of Fercan Developments Inc. bought the building from Molson on Oct. 5, 2001, for $8-million. Mr. DeRosa is listed in corporate records as president of Fercan, which is based in Toronto. Last September, Fercan took out a $3.2-million mortgage on the Barrie property.
Fercan owns properties around Southern Ontario, including the former Eaton Centre shopping mall in Hamilton, now known as the Hamilton City Centre. Fercan's general manager, Italo Ferrari, is a well-known Hamilton businessman who owns a local professional soccer team. Last fall the company donated office space to the campaign of Larry Di Ianni, who became Hamilton's mayor.
According to Ms. Tuckett, the Molson building housed a number of businesses, including Mr. DeRosa's water and coffee operation. There was also a pallet-making company and a welding shop.
Victor Slobodian, a Barrie real-estate broker who handled some leasing for Mr. DeRosa, said he was in the building several times, including as recently as two weeks ago.
"It's a big building and it's got a lot of little nooks and crannies," he said yesterday.
He said there was no suggestion Mr. DeRosa knew anything about the marijuana operation.
"He's a typical landlord. They rent space out and as long as the rent is being paid they don't go and bother their tenants, particularly in a big operation," he said.
As to who was behind the massive grow-op, "we have some ideas, but that's part of the investigation," Superintendent. Bill Crate said yesterday.
No allegations have been made against Mr. DeRosa or his company. Neither Mr. DeRosa nor Mr. Ferrari were available for comment yesterday.
Raided on the weekend following a tip, the former Molson brewery had been turned into a commercial-scale marijuana factory. Inside was an estimated $30-million worth of thousands of high-yield plants, along with an array of elaborate growing equipment -- lights, fans, a watering system and big drawers in which the crop was laid out to dry after being harvested.
Police say the nine individuals charged so far represented just part of a work force that lived in dormitory-style rooms inside the brewery, close to Ontario's busy Highway 400, running a secretive operation that ran 24 hours a day.
Thousands of similar, though smaller grow-ops are believed to be dotted across southern Ontario.
Because it is so lucrative, the hydroponic marijuana industry is largely controlled by organized crime. Among the main players are the Quebec-based Hells Angels. Vietnamese gangs, too, have a big stake in the trade.
"I would anticipate that more charges will be laid," Supt. Crate said. "There's all kinds of evidence available to us, documentary evidence. This was being run like a business."
Paul Waldie