Published: September 18, 2009 11:29 pm      

Police root out marijuana

WELCH — Troopers of the Welch Detachment of the West Virginia State Police finished their annual marijuana eradication program Friday morning, and wound up harvesting a total of 5,621 pot plants in a six-week period — a haul worth an estimated $11.2 million.

“We worked with the officers from the Division of Natural Resources as well as the helicopter unit with the Army National Guard,” Sgt. W.C. Tupper said. Tupper is the co-commander of the Welch Detachment. “All of our troopers worked on this detail at one time or another.” State Police estimate the street value of each marijuana plant at $2,000, making the total value of this year’s eradication project, $11,240,000.

Tupper said that the troopers started their eradication work in early August, and added that their efforts on Friday morning were unsuccessful. “We destroyed the marijuana plants as we went along. With the way it molded, it would stink pretty bad,” he said.

This year’s multi-million haul wasn’t the biggest marijuana eradication effort McDowell troopers have had in recent years. “About four years ago, we got more than 9,000 plants,” Tupper said. “That was the year we ran into booby traps around one of the fields.”

Tupper said that troopers and DNR officers didn’t encounter any booby traps this year, but he said that some pot fields had sophisticated watering systems, including some that had irrigation tubes fabricated by cutting 55 gallon drums in half as well as fences to keep deer from getting to the pot.

“I did remember hearing that some of the troopers and DNR officers heard a rattlesnake when they were looking for pot plants on a mountain,” Tupper said. “They just turned and started looking for the marijuana plants in another direction.”

The McDowell troopers found marijuana plants near Maybeury, Jenkinjones, Yukon, English, Anawalt and in other areas. “We got one patch week before last growing beside a house and made an arrest in that case,” Tupper said, but didn’t release additional details of the arrest. “We also found a stolen camper that was just pushed over a hill.”

Tupper expressed his appreciation to the DNR officers from McDowell, Wyoming and Mercer counties who worked with the troopers as well as the Army National Guard. “This wasn’t the biggest, but it is a significant amount of marijuana,” Tupper said.

— Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com