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TAG plucks $2 million
worth of pot |
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By CHRIS FOREMAN
Staff Writer
cforeman@starbeacon.com |
WILLIAMSFIELD TOWNSHIP - Richard and Ruth Ann Sprague stood at the end of
their driveway Thursday afternoon, peering 150 feet to the east as officials
from a tri-county task force emerged from a cornfield along Route 322
clutching dozens of marijuana plants.
"It's nice because it's boring out here," Ruth Ann Sprague said of the 10
years they've lived on their five-acre property, where they count farmers
and Amish as their neighbors. "No loud noises or sudden movements,"
Richard Sprague said as a helicopter from a television station hovered above
10-foot-tall corn stalks. "Everyone's real quiet out here."
Officials from the Trumbull-Ashtabula-Geauga (TAG) Law Enforcement Task
Force say the tranquility of three southern Ashtabula County communities
likely was the reason 10 cornfields were chosen to conceal more than $2
million worth of marijuana during the summer growing season. TAG deputies
plucked 2,015 marijuana plants Thursday from fields in Williamsfield, Wayne
and Andover townships, said an investigator who spoke on condition of
anonymity.
The plants, which were approaching maturity and stood almost as tall as the
corn stalks, were estimated to produce about $1,000 worth of marijuana,
officials said. Deputies also uprooted 1,894 plants in Gustavus and Kinsman
townships in northern Trumbull County two weeks ago. All have the plants
have been destroyed. While Trumbull County farmers alerted TAG to the
first crop of plants, officials said the plants collected Thursday were
located because civilians offered to let deputies survey the region in their
personal aircraft. Ashtabula County Chief Deputy Howard Shetler said aerial
views showed a distinction between the corn stalks and the marijuana plants
because the marijuana plants appeared darker.
Geauga County Sheriff Daniel C. McClelland said an analysis of the plants
shows they were well-maintained, such as a gardener taking care in tying a
tomato plant to a stake. Many of the marijuana plants were attached to
the corn stalks to hold them up, likely after a winter growth period
indoors. Once transplanted, the corn and the marijuana grew at about the
same rate, Trumbull County Sheriff Thomas L. Altiere said.
Authorities said they have no suspects and were non-committal regarding a
connection between the plants seized in Ashtabula County and those
discovered in Trumbull County. "That part of the investigation is
continuing," McClelland said. "I think the size of the plants and the type
of maintenance might indicate that (a connection exists)."
Besides TAG, the Orwell and Kinsman police departments and the Bureau of
Criminal identification and Investigation (BCI) participated in the seizure.
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