3 guilty in case of massive Sask. pot grow-op

[marcel]

Last Updated: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 | 4:43 PM CT
CBC News

A jury came back with guilty verdicts Wednesday for three of six men
accused of running one of the biggest marijuana farms in Saskatchewan
history.

Following two days of deliberations, a Queen's Bench jury in Regina
found Lawrence Hubert Agecoutay, 52, Chester Fernand Girard, 59, and
Robert Stanley Agecoutay, 48, guilty of possession and production of
marijuana.

However, three other accused, Nelson Edward Northwood, 58, Jack Allan
Northwood, 55, and Joseph Clayton Agecoutay, 47, were cleared of all
charges.

The six were arrested when the RCMP raided a massive grow-op on the
Pasqua First Nation northeast of Regina in August 2005.

During the trial that began last month, court heard police found 10
greenhouses containing 6,000 plants, in what was described as one of
the largest marijuana grow operations in the province's history. The
Crown said the pot grown at the operation had a potential street value
of $3 million.

Lawrence Agecoutay, the man who police say ran the operation,
testified the plants weren't for sale but were to be used as medicine
to fight diabetes and cancer.

In his instructions to jurors, Justice Frank Gerein said it didn't
matter if the plants were going to be used as medicine; if the accused
knew they were growing marijuana, they were guilty.

Gerein also said not all the accused may have known what was being
grown was marijuana.