State police find second pot field
Thursday, October 7, 2004 2:03 PM PDT
Andrew Cutler Argus Observer
ONTARIO
Movie sequels always seem to have one thing in common - they're bigger and better than the original.
You could almost say the same holds true for marijuana grows in Eastern Oregon.
Especially lately.
Law enforcement officials from four state and county agencies Tuesday found their second marijuana grow in less than a week in the Soda Creek area about 21 miles north of Huntington along Snake River Road.
On Sept. 29 officers hauled out over 2,500 marijuana plants from the Morgan Creek area, about 10 miles north of Huntington. After initially estimating the street value at $2.5 million, officials changed their evaluation later in the week, boosting the street value of the illegal narcotics to between $2.5 and $5 million.
The pot field discovered Tuesday will be bigger, police sources said, but no street value can be placed on the grow until all of the plants are cut down.
"So far we've cut about 1,600 plants on one side of the drainage," OSP Detective Jason Reese said. "That's not counting the middle and other side of the drainage."
Oregon State Police from the Ontario, Baker City and La Grande field offices, along with the Baker County Sheriff's Office, the Baker County Search and Rescue and the Oregon Army National Guard all assisted in the seizing of the illegal drugs. While no arrests have been made, police are questioning a number of people of interest in the case and are also working on several leads.
Reese said troopers from the Ontario office called in a National Guard helicopter Tuesday afternoon to go back over the area from last week's grow.
"We knew there was going to be other ones out there," Reese said. "It doesn't start with just one. So we got a helicopter from the National Guard and flew over it Tuesday. Late in the afternoon we located this grow on Soda Creek."
After finding the grow, Reese said the area was cleared. early Tuesday evening.
"We saw some camps there," Reese said. "We went in the (Wednesday) morning and recleared everything. We saw the same materials used at the other grow. They were similar."
Officials said both grows had similar types of irrigation systems with hoses leading to each plant.
The grow is situated on private property. Reese said officials contacted the property owner to gain access to the grow.
"The property owner said earlier he smelled somebody cooking onions," Reese said. "He was like 'Why would there be onions around here?' Later he was talking to his wife and joked 'There is probably a marijuana grow in there.' Turned out there was."
Reese said officers would return to the scene today to continue cutting down the plants.
A Chinook helicopter from the Oregon Guard's Pendleton aviation unit will be on hand to assist with shuttling the plants out of the grow. The marijuana is scheduled to burned today at an undisclosed location.
