OFFICERS SEIZE MILLIONS IN MARIJUANA BUST

WALLACE - Nearly $10 million in marijuana was seized by Duplin County
authorities in what officials are calling the area's largest pot
seizure in years - possibly ever. More than 4,000 pounds of the drug
was recovered early Sunday by sheriff's authorities, who worked with
several other agencies for 36 hours to remove marijuana stalks from a
heavily wooded area near Wallace.

According to Duplin County Sheriff Blake Wallace, the marijuana was
found on a 15- to 20-acre plot of land about half a mile off Old Camp
Road, close to the Sampson County line. The bust was the result of an
ongoing investigation and a tip from a citizen who called the
sheriff's office late Saturday evening.

"We had an ongoing investigation of a possible grow operation," said
Wallace. "Then we did get a tip of unusual traffic in the area." The
marijuana recovered Sunday morning, which weighed in at 4,160 pounds,
has a street value of about $9.9 million, he said.

"I'm not familiar with anything of this magnitude in southeastern
North Carolina," said Wallace, who has been in law enforcement for 17
years. "As far as marijuana and sophistication of operation, I've
never seen anything like it."

Deputies responded to the wooded area at about 2 a.m. Sunday and
discovered stalk after stalk of marijuana plants, some as tall as 13
and 14 feet, Wallace said. Three huts also were discovered on the
land, likely inhabited by those who were tending to the plants, the
sheriff said.

The huts, spread out from each other, contained propane cook tops,
cell phone chargers, food, produce and pesticides used to treat the
plants - "just about everything you would find in a normal home," Wallace said.

Despite just three small huts, the operation was too big to be
operated by just three people.

"It would've had to have been more than three people tending to those
plants," the sheriff said. He said that there were three to four
sleeping bags in each of the small huts, indicating that several
people may have been involved.

No arrests have yet been made. Wallace said that the owner of the
land was not suspected to be involved or have any knowledge of the
drugs being cultivated on his land.

Not all of the 15 to 20 acres of land contained marijuana.

Wallace described the plants as being grown in lanes among timber in
the wooded area. The growers used lanes "cut out" about five or six
months ago to grow the marijuana plants. Wallace on Monday said that
authorities had been on the scene all day Sunday and until about 2
p.m. Monday recovering all of the marijuana. In addition to Duplin
County Sheriff's authorities, approximately 11 deputies, each with
the Sampson County and Wayne County sheriff's offices and officers
with the Wallace Police Department, assisted in the bust. Wallace
estimated that there were about 75 law enforcement officers in all
working to clear the pot farm Sunday.

The Duplin County Sheriff's Office also solicited the help of the
North Carolina Forestry Service in getting to where the marijuana
plants were and a North Carolina Highway Patrol helicopter in
surveying the surrounding area from the air to ensure that there were
not any outlying marijuana fields missed by authorities. Deputies
used a farm tractor with trailer to haul the marijuana from the farm.
Not all of the drugs were probably destined for Duplin County, but
would likely have been trafficked to other counties in the state.

"This is a good sting, any time you can prevent that kind of poundage
from hitting the streets," said Wallace. He said that investigators
were working toward the next step in the case - making arrests to go
along with the seizure.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.