Pot Seizure Called County??s Largest
BY deleted: Staff Writer
Authorities Wednesday made what is believed to be the largest single marijuana seizure in the history of the county.
Officers located a field with 5,404 marijuana plants in a wooded area behind New Century Middle School off N.C. 24-27. Twenty other plants were found in different parts of the county.
The street value of all of the marijuana seized is $5.4 million. The formula officers use to come up with that figure is simple: Each plant, no matter how large or small, is valued at $1,000.
According to Sheriff Lane Carter, the large marijuana field was well tended and had a makeshift camp located in it. The field was among several hundred acres of woods, Carter said, rather far from the school for anyone walking.
Officers from the Sheriff??s Department, the State Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Army National Guard and the State Highway Patrol contributed to the investigation.
National Guard and Highway Patrol helicopters helped spot the field from the air. About 12 sheriff??s deputies from the narcotics unit and the investigations office and three SBI agents moved in from the ground.
The operation was part of a continuing effort to eradicate marijuana farming in rural Moore County.
??We do it several times a year,? Carter said.
Usually, deputies seize between 500 and 600 plants a year.
Any rural and wooded area is subject to marijuana farming, Carter said. Marijuana farmers like to use fields that have recently been cut for lumber and replanted with immature pines. The canopy helps hide the cannabis plants from overhead investigators.
Last year, deputies found a field that included more than 1,000 plants.
Carter said that this discovery is the largest he??s seen, and he??s been with the Sheriff??s Department for 28 years.
??We??ve seized thousands before,? he said, ??but this is the largest single seizure.?
Sheriff??s deputies stayed on the scene for most of the day, destroying all the plants.
No charges have been filed in the case. In marijuana busts like this, it??s often difficult for officers to make an arrest unless they come upon someone on the scene. Investigators can check the land records, but officers say marijuana farmers rarely use their own land.
:mad: Bad day in the neighborhood!
