MORE THAN 6,000 MARIJUANA PLANTS BURNED

More than 6,000 marijuana plants were cut down and burned this week during an
eradication effort along the Alabama-Florida state line.

Along with the illegal plants, law enforcers also rounded up a 63-year-old
Bonifay, Fla. man who had marijuana growing on his property, according to
authorities.

"This shows we will put people in jail, not just pull up their plants," said
Holmes County Sheriff Dennis Lee.

The Holmes County Sheriff's Department was the center of the operation that
included the Geneva County Sheriff's Department, U. S. Drug Enforcement
Administration, Alabama Department of Public Safety-Alabama Bureau of
Investigation, Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Alabama National
Guard.

"We still have old-time marijuana growers in the area," Lee said. "They
probably thought we would be so tied up with meth labs we would not be doing
this this year."

One suspect found out the department could do both.

The suspect is Melvin L. Beall, 63, of Bonifay. Holmes County Chief Deputy
Eddie Ingram said 166 mature plants were found on Beall's property in a patch
off Beall Packing Road along Holmes County 177A.

"In a search of his residence we found an indoor-growing operation with 40 to
50 plants," Ingram said. "We also found some methamphetamine."

Beall is charged with cultivation of marijuana, possession of marijuana with
the intent to distribute and possession of a controlled substance. He is
currently in the Holmes County Jail without bond.

Ingram said the largest number of plants were found Thursday afternoon. The
patch of 644 plants was pulled from a forest east of Miller's Crossroads off
Florida State Road 2.

The tallest plants were found Wednesday afternoon along Roping Road, a dirt
road north of Florida 2 near Bonifay. More than 200 plants, ranging in height
from 18 to 22 feet, were found in a scrub oak tract near a planted field.

In Alabama, 20 plants from six to eight feet tall were found south of Geneva on
Buck Holland Road Thursday.

"It's still important we do this type of activity," said Geneva County Sheriff
Greg Ward. "Marijuana plants will produce the illegal drug of marijuana and it
will eventually be sold on the streets."

With an average sale value of $2,000 per mature plant, the haul this week took
about $12 million out of the growers' pockets. "The tallest plants could have
generated almost $5,000 per plant," Ingram said.

"This put a major hurting on somebody," Ward said. "But I'm still surprised
that that much marijuana is being grown in this area. Most of the growers have
either gone out of the area, gone indoors or are going elsewhere to get it.

"It's important to keep doing this because if we don't, it will be more and
more and more marijuana sold on the street," Ward said.

The most successful year in Geneva County was in 1992 when 15,000 plants were
taken during a week of eradication. Geneva County ranked in the top five
marijuana producing counties that year.