400 MARIJUANA PLANTS SEIZED IN WOOD COUNTY

BOWLING GREEN - Wood County sheriff's deputies continued yesterday to hunt
for marijuana plants in farm fields as part of an annual eradication effort.

Chief Deputy Mark Hummer said the department, working with state and
federal authorities, had found and destroyed more than 400 mature marijuana
plants with a street value of more than $400,000. As of yesterday, no
arrests had been made in the operation, which began Thursday.

A helicopter manned by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and
Investigation is being used to spot the plants. Deputies use all-terrain
vehicles to reach the illegal cultivation sites.

In most cases, drug cultivators hide their crops in the fields of
unsuspecting farmers, Deputy Hummer said, making it hard to find the
offenders. The operation's goal is "pulling illegal drugs off the street,"
he said.