COUNTY'S MARIJUANA PLANT BUSTS TOP IN STATE

The York County drug task force is leading the state in total number of
marijuana plants seized so far this year, bolstered recently by the largest
bust in the agency's five-year history. In 2003, agents from the York
County Multijurisdictional Drug Enforcement Unit have seized 4,360
marijuana plants valued at $10.9 million. Most of the plants were recovered
during three multimillion dollar seizures in July -- the most recent of
which accounted for more than half of the yearly total.

Marvin Brown, senior commander of the task force, said he was informed by a
State Law Enforcement Division agent recently that York County was leading
all other counties in the state in the recovery of marijuana plants.

"I don't know if people have gotten more comfortable (growing marijuana)
because we haven't found a lot of it in the past," said Lt. Kelly Lovelace
of the drug task force.

Lovelace attributed the rash of marijuana fields in part to the rainy
weather in the spring and early summer. She said it certainly was not due
to the price of marijuana. In 1996, the street value of 1 pound of
marijuana was between $1,200 and $1,600. Now, a pound of marijuana can be
purchased for between $600 and $800.

No arrests have been made in the high-dollar drug eradications. Three York
County men, however, were charged this week with manufacturing marijuana
after authorities say they found a small number of plants near their homes.

"We hate that we have not been able to put suspects with these marijuana
seizures," Lovelace said of the larger busts, "but we got the drugs off the
street. And that's very satisfying."

On July 19, narcotics agents and S.C. Army National Guard officers spotted
a field of 976 marijuana plants about 50 yards south of Odgen Road in the
Rock Hill area. While they circled overhead in a surveillance helicopter,
authorities then noticed two larger plots of marijuana about a mile away,
off Squire Road, Lovelace said.

A total of 2,440 plants worth $6.1 million were recovered, according to
York County Sheriff's Office reports. The field off Odgen Road included
plants between 3 and 4 feet tall in a 12-foot-by-15-foot clearing.

The two other fields near Squire Road held 1,464 plants between 4 and 9
feet in height. "They looked like they were cared for much better,"
Lovelace said of the larger plants. "It took two or three chops with a
machete to get some of them down."

Lovelace said she was unsure whether the fields were harvested by the same
person or people. She said it was possible the Odgen Road field consisted
of "decoy plants" -- a ploy to keep authorities or thieves from finding the
Squire Road fields.

Because of the current trend, Lovelace said the task force has scheduled
several more aerial surveillance operations with the S.C. National Guard
throughout the growing season, which runs as late as October.