A cadre of law enforcement agents eradicated 261 marijuana plants in remote wooded areas in three counties in the last week. Street value is estimated at $200,000.
Plants harvested in the three-day operation in Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties ranged from 4 to 7 feet tall with a quarter pound to a pound of pot on each of them, Maine Drug Enforcement Agency Supervisor Gerry Baril said.
“We are in the eradication season,” he said.
The nights are longer, he said, and buds are developing on the plants.
The biggest cache of plants was found in Chesterville in a two-day period.
Police also found about a quarter-pound of processed marijuana in Bethel.
No one was charged with marijuana cultivation as of Wednesday but drug agents expect at least two people to be charged in the future, Baril said.
Eradication operations took place in Livermore Falls in Androscoggin County, Chesterville in Franklin County, and Albany Township, Bethel and Dixfield in Oxford County, according to a press release.
Ground crews were assisted by aerial surveillance assistance in each of the operations that involved about a dozen local, county and state law enforcement agents on each day.
On Aug. 14 with aerial surveillance assistance from a National Guard helicopter and police spotters, MDEA agents on the ground with local officers from Franklin County Sheriff’s Office and Farmington and Jay police departments located and eradicated 56 plants sites near Moose Hill along the Livermore Falls-Chesterville line.
Baril said the plants were in a remote wooded area north of Twelve Corners in Fayette where a triangular piece of property crosses Livermore Falls, Chesterville and Fayette.
That same day, 105 additional plants were harvested from a second wooded area, off the Mace Road in Chesterville, the release stated.
On Monday a State Police pilot provided aerial surveillance assistance along with police spotters to help agents and local officers from the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office, Bethel and Dixfield police departments, locate and harvest 15 plants growing near a sand pit in the Hunts Corner area in Albany Township. Officers also harvested 11 plants growing behind a home on Route 232 in Bethel, the release stated. A consent search of the premises there resulted in the seizure of about a quarter-pound of processed marijuana, according to the release.
Police later located five additional marijuana plants growing behind a home on Averill Road in Dixfield, the release stated.
Another marijuana eradication operation in Franklin County took place Tuesday with assistance from the Civil Air Patrol. MDEA agents and officers from the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, State Police, and Farmington and Jay police departments harvested 69 “large” mature marijuana plants from a bog below Blabon Hill in Chesterville. The plants were 6 to 7 feet tall and were “well budded,” the release stated.
The marijuana plants were gathered and brought to an MDEA evidence facility and will be dried and commercially incinerated, Baril said.
dperry@sunjournal.com
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