MARIJUANA INVESTIGATION ONGOING

A massive, ongoing marijuana investigation in the Applegate area has
expanded as officers continue to discover and remove plants.

Jackson County Sheriff Mike Winters reported that officers had located
15 drug gardens by Saturday afternoon.

Firefighters from Jackson County Fire District No. 3 and the Oregon
Department of Forestry joined officers pulling up plants Saturday as
state police and other regional agencies moved on to another project,
he said. By 4 p.m. Saturday, crews had pulled 16,243 plants and
planned to finish out the day and keep yanking up plants today.

Winters estimated the numerous groves, all believed to be linked to
one unidentified cartel active up and down the West Coast, could yield
between 30,000 and 50,000 plants. The investigation, led by the
federal Drug Enforcement Administration, is ongoing and officials
declined to release details.

Investigators had their eyes on four gardens in the hills south and
west of Cantrall-Buckley Park and had kept search flights away from
the area so growers wouldn't be tipped off, Winters said.

"We knew there would be more, but we didn't know how many more," he
said.

Using DEA estimates on the current street value of marijuana, the
seizures could be worth $150 million or more.