TRAPS GUARD MARIJUANA PLOTS

Groundhogs, Hikers, Drug Agents Uncover Them In Ohio, Ky.

CLEVELAND - Razor blades, bear traps, grenades and guns are among the
traps marijuana growers are using to try to keep out police and
competing drug growers.

Drug agents in helicopters have spotted $411 million worth of
marijuana across Ohio in the last decade, say records from the Ohio
attorney general. Agents have pulled nearly 100 traps from patches.

Agents say that's probably a small fraction of what's out
there.

"It's a problem, not just for law enforcement, but for hikers and the
15-year-old kid on a four-wheeler out to have some fun," said Ted
Almay, former director of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification
and Investigation.

Traps include fishing lines with sharpened fish hooks strung between
trees and razor blades shoved into the stalks of marijuana plants,
ready to bloody intruders.

Last year, a Highland County grower planted 10 homemade bombs in a
cornfield. A groundhog set off the trap and blew itself into the air.

In Champaign County, a hiker suffered some paralysis after tripping
over a fishing line attached to a grenade pin. The resulting explosion
showered him with shrapnel.

Jim Gordon, president of the Mohican Trail Club, a hiking group near
Ashland, said hikers who wander off paths often find marijuana plants
and traps.

In Kentucky, poisonous copperhead snakes were put in a mesh container
near a plot. When a state police officer tried to harvest the plot, he
tripped on a wire and a snake sprang out to bite him.