STATE POLICE FIND, DESTROY $23.5 MILLION OF MARIJUANA

WAYNE -- It took the Wayne Detachment of the West Virginia State Police
only three weeks to find and destroy $23.5 million worth of marijuana, said
Sgt. M.L. Watts.

Since mid-July, police have found 9,400 marijuana plants growing in Wayne
County, 4,100 of which were growing in the Dunlow area. Police have a
suspect in the Dunlow cultivation, but no arrests have been made, Watts said.

The 1999 season was the last time the state police topped 9,000 plants in
the county, Watts said.

This year's rain during the early summer months is part of the reason for
the increased cultivation activity, Watts said.

"The plants we are finding this year are among the biggest I have ever
seen," Watts said. "We have seen plants 15 feet tall."

The majority of the crop recovered this year has been discovered by
helicopter fly-over, but some have come from tips from the public.

State police detachments in other parts of the region are just beginning
marijuana eradication efforts.

In Lincoln County, the state police have destroyed approximately 1,200
plants and have only patrolled a quarter of the county, said Trooper R.L.
Frye of the Hamlin Detachment of the West Virginia State Police. The 1,200
plants were found in just one day of eradication efforts, Frye said.

"We haven't found any big fields, but we have found a lot of small
patches," Frye said.

Calls to other state police detachments were not returned.

Police ask those with information about marijuana cultivation efforts to
call the state police. For the Wayne detachment, call 272-5131, and for
Huntington call 528-5555.