SHERIFF RAIDS POT PLANTATION

It was the largest marijuana grow in Linn County that anyone at the
sheriff's office could remember, and this week officials cut it down
and hauled it out of a forested area south of Lyons.

Sheriff Tim Mueller said Thursday afternoon that his office had seized
4,707 plants.

If harvested and sold, the plants would have had a street value of
more than $9 million, Mueller said, adding that his estimate was "a
little on the low side."

Flying over the county by helicopter, detectives spotted the
plantation on Aug. 7. They didn't immediately remove the plants
because they were trying to catch the growers, Mueller said.

No one has been arrested in connection with this grow, and Mueller
wouldn't say anything more except that it was still under
investigation.

The plants had been growing on three acres of forest in the McCully
Mountain area on property owned by Weyerhaeuser Co.

The marijuana was planted on a hillside, and irrigation tubing carried
water from a creek farther up the hill down to the plants. Some of the
dirt had been tilled and some of the plants had been staked.

The sheriff said there was evidence of campsites in the
area.

Detective Capt. Paul Timm said a typical outdoor marijuana grow in
Linn County consists of six to 100 plants. This grow had about 1,000
plants that were 6 to 8 feet tall.

This week, the sheriff's office noticed that some of the marijuana had
been harvested and decided to cut the rest.

On Wednesday, after securing the area with assistance from a SWAT
unit, officials began cutting the plants. Two deputies spent the night
at the site to keep watch.

About 6:30 a.m. Thursday, deputies, members of Linn County Search and
Rescue, and a member of the National Guard counter-drug unit began
bundling and removing the plants from the forest.

The plants had to be carried up a trail and then loaded into the back
of an all-terrain vehicle. From there, the plants were driven to a
gravel road where they were transferred into the back of a National
Guard truck.

The Drug Enforcement Administration and the sheriff's office kept some
of the marijuana for evidence, but most of the crop was taken by a
"security convoy" to an incinerator in Eugene.

The security, Mueller explained, consisted of deputies driving in
front of and behind the National Guard truck.

The sheriff's office was assisted by the Albany, Lebanon and Sweet
Home police departments, the DEA, and the National Guard.