SHERIFF SEIZES 7,650 PLANTS

The Alamance County Sheriff 's office on Monday announced what might
be one the largest marijuana seizures in the county's history. On
Friday, deputies with the special operations division, acting on a
tip, found and seized 7,650 plants in the Snow Camp area. "I've been
doing this for 33 years here in this county, and I don't recall that
number of plants being seized here before," spokesman Randy Jones
said. The plants, which average about 12-18 inches in length each,
would have had a retail value in excess of $6 million dollars if they
had been allowed to reach maturity and been processed, according to
the sheriff 's office. But as they are, about two months and six feet
short of maturity, the plants are worth about "an extra gallon of
gas," according to Lt. Robert Wilborn.

"This is like raw materials, as far as they're concerned," Jones said.
"We have really angered somebody, I expect."

The plants were found in multiple clusters scattered over a two-to
three-acre area off of Major Hill Road. They were in heavy woods with
natural water sources owned by private owners who were likely unaware
that someone was attempting to grow marijuana on their several hundred
acres of property. "Traditionally what you find with this is seldom
does the ownership of the land that this stuff 's grown on have
anything to do with who's growing it," Jones said.

No arrests have been made, and no suspects have been named. The
sheriff 's office passed on the opportunity to conduct a sting
operation, concluding that the risk was too great.

"Our worst case scenario would be to leave plants and try to surveil
them and have some individual be able to harvest part or all of his
crop and then escape from us," Jones said. "That's a case where we'd
rather use the preventional seizure of the plants than run a risk the
drugs getting into our community."

The primary benefits of such a large haul are the costs it imposes on
the potential seller.

"These plants had been planted, cultivated and maintained," Jones
said. "We've interrupted their potential profit margin. That's part of
our goal here. If you can remove the profitability from the drug
trade, then you're going to make a dent in the drug trade and your
drug problems in the area." In February, the Burlington Police
Department seized more than 1,500 pounds of marijuana in a Mebane
mobile home park. Burlington investigators pegged the street value of
that bust at more than $2 million. Authorities referred to that
seizure as the largest in Alamance County's history. A Times-News
investigation last year found that there is no universal formula for
determining street value of marijuana.

This is the second marijuana bust the sheriff 's office has completed
in less than a month. Charges have already been filed in the earlier
case, in which the number of plants seized was just short of 4,000.
The two cases are not thought to be related, according to Jones.

The 11,000 plants found make up what is by far the largest annual
total in recent memory, and it's not even July.

Wilborn pointed out how it could just be an isolated incident in which
a couple of outof-towners decided to try growing in Alamance County.
But the possibility exists that marijuana growth is on the rise. "For
one year, I'd hate to say it's a trend, but it sure looks like one,"
Wilborn said.