Published: August 27, 2008 07:01 pm      

McDowell County police seize 4,000 pot plants

WELCH — A substantial quantity of marijuana won’t be making it to the streets this year, but will instead, go up in smoke as soon as it quits raining and state troopers of the Welch Detachment can eradicate it.

A trooper from the detachment and an officer with the Division of Natural Resources, took to the skies above McDowell County Monday in a West Virginia Army National Guard helicopter and spotted three marijuana plots, according to Sgt. W.C. Tupper, Welch Detachment commander.

“We located three separate patches of marijuana plants, and were able to cut down about 4,000 plants,” Tupper said. “The troopers of my detachment and deputies with the McDowell County Sheriff’s Department went to the places and cut down the plants. They were mature plants, about 12-foot tall.” He said the street value of the marijuana is about $8 million.

Tupper said that the troopers and deputies did not find any elaborate irrigation systems or booby traps at the sites. “Not this time,” he said. He said the plots were not close to any residences. “One was in the Iaeger area, another was near Raysal and the other one was in the Big Creek area,” Tupper said.

Tupper said the pot growers used fertilizer and weeded the plots, and pointed out that the 4,000 plants is not the largest haul that the detachment has made in recent years. “We got 9,000 plants three years ago,” Tupper said. “Still, this is a substantial eradication.”

Tupper added that the investigation is ongoing.

— Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com