POLICE BEGIN SEARCH FOR POT CROPS

Marijuana Eradication Takes To The Skies

Those interested in growing something other than food crops, beware:
the Indiana State Police are looking for hidden marijuana fields.

Officers have been successful in eliminating many cultivated outdoor
marijuana plants in past years, according to ISP Sgt. Mike Burns.

Two eradication enforcement officers are working full-time to search
out and destroy clandestine fields.

"They are checking out all the telephone calls that come into our
Marijuana Tip Line," Burns said. "They are also doing fly-overs."

If you have more land than just the yard around your house, it may do
well to make an occasional check of your own property or fields.

Typically, growers use other people's property to grow the plants,
often mixing them in with farmers' crops, Burns said.

Law enforcement personnel also have increased their focus on indoor
growing operations.

Hamilton County Sheriff Maj. Mark Bowen said deputies are more
reactive than pro-active, but they usually bust one or two marijuana
operations per year. None have been found so far this year, he said.

The Hamilton County Drug Task Force also works on tips about illicit
marijuana farming operations, also focusing on indoor operations.

"If we get a tip or lead, we usually eradicate it," said an undercover
task force officer, who didn't want a name used. "There have been
several marijuana arrests this year that have been large in quantity."

One large-scale bust occurred last week in Carmel, where officers
confiscated 100 pounds of marijuana smuggled from Canada, seized
$150,000 in cash and made one arrest. The street value of the drug was
estimated to be $400,000.

John O'Toole, 61, of Fishers, was charged in a federal indictment in
March and sentenced to 10 years in prison after 100 kilos were found
at his residence.

An indoor growing operation also was eradicated in a residence in
Fishers, where 297 plants were discovered.

Plants found indoors are taken to the police property room until after
the case is over. The marijuana is then incinerated. Plants found
growing outdoors are burned on the spot.

"The majority of the marijuana we come in contact with is being grown
indoors," the undercover officer said, adding that using hydroponics
(growing plants without soil in a nutrient solution) to grow it
increases the quality n or concentration n of the drug, making it more
lucrative.

"Growing marijuana has become a science, almost," the officer
said.

While growing marijuana is punishable by imprisonment and fines,
failure to report or destroy marijuana plants is also a crime, Burns
said.

"Marijuana growers sell drugs to children, trespass on other people's
property and destroy precious farmland and crops," he said.

Indiana State Police are asking the public to report suspicious
activity around crop fields and outbuildings wherever
marijuana-cultivating operations are suspected.