Local law enforcement officers uprooted 600 marijuana plants around Athens and Vinton counties on Friday.
The plants are worth $750,000 on the street and some of the buds
which normally do not exceed four or five inches, reached two feet in length, said Athens County Sheriff Pat Kelly.
The plants were scattered on private farms and on government land along County Road 19, in a field near the Athens-Vinton County line, near Roundhouse Road in New Marshfield and in a valley off Vore Ridge Road.
Kelly said he doesn't know who might have planted the marijuana and that he doubted he would be able to track anyone down.
Marijuana is a major crop for Southeast Ohio Kelly said. I am very satisfied with getting those kind of crops but my attention is still on the heroin problem here in Athens County and the harder drugs like methamphetamines and cocaine.
The crops were found during a fly over scheduled after Ohio State Highway Patrol Sgt. Dick Meadows told Athens County Sheriff's Narcotic Unit that his department had spotted a plot of marijuana on Roundhouse Road in New Marshfield, according to the news release.
Sheriff's deputies will either burn all 600 plants in Ohio University's incinerator or in a designated field after receiving a court order today, Kelly said.
cm430506@ohiou.edu
1
News
Caitlin McGlade
