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LENOX TOWNSHIP — It took less time Thursday to burn the 1,135 marijuana
plants confiscated a day earlier by area law enforcement officers, than it
was to find the stuff.
All they had to do is find a match.
Aided with a helicopter from the Ohio Bureau of
Criminal Investigation & Identification, Thirty officers from the
Trumbull/Ashtabula Group Drug Enforcement Task Force (TAG), Ashtabula County
Sheriff’s Department, Geneva and Kinsman Police Departments and Ohio
Department of Natural Resources teamed up for the two-day eradication
operation, says sheriff’s deputy Lt. Greg Leonhard.
“We did one fly-over last week and found 167
plants. Again on Wednesday we were out and found the 1,135 plants, which
have a street value of $1,000 a plant,” Leonhard said.
There was a slight glitch at the burn site in
Lenox Township Thursday. TAG Detective Buddy Felt discovered he and Larry
Dougherty with Ashtabula County Sheriff’s Department forgot to bring any
matches or a lighter.
Both men said they don’t smoke anymore, so they
don’t carry a lighter or matches. Felt and Dougherty had piled paper, wood
and then heaped the huge pile of marijuana plant on top, then doused the
pile with diesel fuel.
A little chagrined, Felt finally borrowed a
lighter from a tenant, who rents part of the farmhouse where the burning
took place. Soon the pile was crackling away as Felt cautioned it would take
at least an hour or more to finish the job.
“We had to get a court order signed first to do
the burning. Common Pleas Judge Ronald Vettel signed the order for us. I
don’t know why we forget to bring matches.,” he said laughing.
Leonhard said the marijuana plantings are much
easier to spot at this time of year planted in corn and soy beans fields.
“We did our searches in Gustavus and Kinsman
Townships in Trumbull County, Williamsfield, Andover, Cherry Valley and
Wayne Townships in Ashtabula County. Some of the spots were the same we
searched a year ago,” Leonhard said.
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