Cops find $6m worth of pot

Friday, September 04, 2009

Officers pull pot plants from an illegal growing operation in Sampson County

Tags:

local/state

IVANHOE, NC (WTVD) -- Sampson County Sheriff Jimmy Thornton says his officers have busted a huge marijuana growing operation.

Deputies pulled some 2,400 pot plants from a wooded area just off Dr. Kerr Road in Ivanhoe Thursday. The plants have an estimated street value of about $6 million.

Thornton says investigators found out about the pot field through aerial surveillance coordinated by the Sampson County Sheriff's Office Special Investigations Division and the NC State Bureau of Investigation.

There was so much pot that officers and deputies from the Sampson County Sheriff's Office, the Duplin County Sheriff's Office, and the Clinton Police Department, the State Bureau of Investigation, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration cut down the plants.

Thornton said whoever was growing the pot left before officers arrived. Investigators found tents, food, and irrigation equipment at a central campsite.

"The persons growing the marijuana were squatters who were using someone else's land for their illegal purposes," Sheriff Thornton stated. "The southern part of Sampson County still has vast wooded areas that are ideal for someone to set up their operation without the risk of being detected easily. I'm just thankful that we were able to locate the marijuana plants before they ended up in the hands of someone's child."