EDMONTON: Police in Alberta’s capital have arrested four Punjabi men for cultivating poppy plants on the northern outskirts of Edmonton. During a raid, authorities seized around 60,000 poppy saplings from their fields.
The accused have been identified as Sukhdeep Dhanoa (42), Sandeep Dandiwal (33), Gurpreet Singh (30) and Kulwinder Singh (40). A case has been registered against them under various provisions of Canada’s anti-narcotics law.
According to Sgt. Marcon Antonio, spokesperson for the Edmonton Police’s Drug and Gang Enforcement Team, the farmhouse located near 195 Avenue and 34th Street in northeast Edmonton had been under surveillance after authorities received a tip-off about illegal cultivation of prohibited plants.
Police launched a search operation after obtaining a court warrant and recovered large quantities of poppy husk and seeds from the farmhouse. Investigators believe the poppy was being processed into doda — a narcotic substance made from poppy husk — and intended for sale to drug users.
“The market value of the seized poppy production is estimated to be between Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 5 lakh,” Antonio said, adding that opium and heroin are derived from the juice of poppy plants and sold illegally.
This is the second known case of illegal poppy cultivation in Canada. In 2011, a similar case was reported in Chilliwack, British Columbia, where several people were arrested for growing the prohibited crop.
