MEXICO – Police Chief James Theriault was grinning from ear to ear, soaking up the late afternoon sun Tuesday as he doled out some information on pot-growing cases.

“I love it when a plan comes together,” he quipped.

The plan in this case was put together in a hurry.

On Monday, Theriault was working with Dixfield police and others in locating some marijuana growing sites. During the course of that investigation, he said, he was tipped to an alleged indoor pot-growing operation in Mexico. The tip was solid enough to gain cops a search warrant, Theriault said.

So, about 4 p.m. Monday, Theriault, along with some Oxford County deputy sheriffs and some Maine Drug Enforcement Agency agents, knocked on a door at 21 Granite St., the home of Norman Hutchinson, 44.

“He wasn’t home, but his wife was,” said Theriault, “so we served her with the paper work.”

Inside the house he said police “found an elaborate marijuana growing operation.” There were lights, heat lamps and a sophisticated drying system, the chief said.

There were also 55 “high quality marijuana plants” ranging from 2 to 4 feet high.

He said the street value of the plants would range from $1,000 to $2,000 each, depending on quality and demand.

When Hutchinson came home, he was arrested and charged with aggravated cultivation of marijuana, a Class C felony, Theriault said. Simple growing would have constituted a lesser crime, the chief explained, but because 21 Granite St. was within 1,000 feet a school, the crime is elevated to felony status.

He said Hutchinson’s wife later bailed her husband. He faces arraignment on the marijuana cultivation charge on Oct. 5 at Rumford District Court.

Theriault said that between Monday and Tuesday, when he was scouting for plants from a helicopter, he and other area police, working with county sheriffs and MDEA agents, had pulled about 100 plants, most of it growing in Mexico.

“That’s a lot of marijuana that’s never going to hit the streets,” Theriault said, “and a lot of money that won’t get into drug growers’ hands.”