The Surete du Quebec is spearheading a massive anti-drug operation in Montreal region on Tuesday.
Operation "Borax" involves some 800 police officers from the RCMP and police services from Montreal, Laval and Longueuil.
Organized-crime groups with Asian ties are believed to be involved.
Officers raided 40 locations to dismantle a marijuana production and distribution network.
The SQ says as many as 200 suspects might be arrested by the end of the day. There are reports that 10 businesses are involved in the alleged ring, including nine on the island of Montreal.
The operation stems from the 2005 discovery of a large cannibis-growing operation.
OPERATION ABSENT
In an unrelated operation on Tuesday, police went after drug traffickers in Quebec City and nearby Levis as part of Operation Absent. Eleven people were arrested.
CRACKDOWN CITY
Quebec police agencies have kept organized criminals on their toes this year with more than a dozen raids, including eight major ones:
June 4: Raids on a Hells Angels training club called Devil's Child lead to 17 arrests. Devil's Child was believed to control the drug trade in Drummondville and Victoriaville.
June 3: Some 600 police officers arrest 46 members of an alleged cocaine and contraband-tobacco trafficking ring linked to the Hells and two criminals on the Kahnawake reserve south of Montreal.
May 20: Officers raid a string of companies in southern and central Quebec that specialize in tinting car windows. The alleged ring was apparently aimed at taking over businesses and trafficking drugs: 28 arrests.
May 19: Thirteen raids in Kanesatake, northwest of Montreal, bring down a marijuana-production ring.
April 15: Police arrest about 125 people connected to the Hells Angels on suspicion of murders, drug dealing and other crimes going back 17 years.
April 2: The SQ and investigators with Revenue Quebec carry out raids on several Montreal-area construction companies suspected of defrauding the government of more than $6.5 million in sales taxes.
March 24: The RCMP breaks up what it calls a "mass marketing fraud" network. 120 officers from several police forces raid 16 money-transfer outlets in St. Laurent and the west island.
Feb. 12: Operation Axe hammers down on bikers and street gangs in the Montreal area and Ottawa. Hundreds of police from several forces take part in what law-enforcement calls the biggest anti-gang operation since the big Hells crackdown of 2001.
