Ontario cops also confiscate a small amount of processed weed and cash.

Three people are facing charges after officers with the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and its partners executed a warrant last week and discovered a massive cannabis grow containing more than 7,600 plants in Renfrew, Ont.

Per CTV News, the grow was located near Highway 132 in Admaston/Bromley Township.

Photos released by the OPP show large, indoor cultivations and growing equipment.

Although the OPP initially tweeted on May 5 that more than 5,500 cannabis plants were seized, that figure has reportedly been adjusted to 7,600-plus.

Beyond the plants, officers also seized a small amount, reported to be 200 grams, of processed marijuana, an unidentified amount of Canadian currency and “other property items associated with this investigation,” according to Renfrew Today.

The three accused — aged 39, 59 and 60 — have each been charged with possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000, growing more than four pot plants and growing in a place that is not their dwelling, the publication reports. All are scheduled to appear in court on July 6.

As per the Cannabis Act, the maximum penalty for producing large amounts of weed beyond personal cultivation limits is up to 14 years in jail. A federal licence is required to cultivate, process and sell cannabis for medical or non-medical purposes, notes information from the Government of Canada.

There are three types of licences, per Cannabis Licence Experts, namely: nursery, which allows for cultivating cannabis genetics such as clones and seeds, within a maximum 540 sq. ft; standard cultivation, which permit cultivation in an unlimited-sized grow space; and micro-cultivation, which limits a grow space to 2,152 sq. ft. Canada allows indoor and outdoor grows.

Federal requirements note that for both micro-cultivation and standard cultivation licence-holders, “the master grower is responsible for the cultivation, propagation and harvesting of cannabis and must have sufficient knowledge of the provisions of the act and regulations.”

Medical licences, however, have been linked to quite a fair number of illegal grow-ops, some of these involving criminal organizations. In 2021, both Health Canada and police forces sounded the alarm about people using medical licences to grow cannabis for illegal purposes.

Earlier in the year, the OPP emphasized Intelligence Unit officers are focused on identifying sophisticated, large-scale criminal enterprises that are “exploiting the regulations set by Health Canada by diverting cannabis authorized to be grown for a personal medical purpose to the illegal market.”

The most recent OPP tweet does not make mention of licences.

But the police service has been involved in the takedown of many illegal grows over the last year or so, including thousands of plants and just shy of 230 kilograms of processed weed found near Leamington in March and about 4,000 plants seized from a Kingsville greenhouse in November 2021.