JAY – A Jay man who said that $300,000 worth of marijuana police seized at his sawmill and residence on Monday was not his, turned himself in to police Wednesday afternoon and is facing drug charges.

Robert Whittemore, 57, of 222 Intervale Road was arrested on felony charges of aggravated trafficking in marijuana and aggravated marijuana cultivation. He posted $500 cash bail and was released from the Franklin County jail in Farmington.

Jay police, Maine Drug Enforcement Agency and deputies with the Franklin and Oxford counties sheriff’s departments raided the Barking Dog Mill on Route 140 on Monday after a marijuana grow was spotted by helicopter occupants returning from an eradication mission in Oxford County.

Jay police Chief Larry White Sr. said officers seized 90 plants with a street value of $90,000 near a pig pen on the property. They also confiscated a pound of processed marijuana packaged in 1 ounce bags for distribution. A digital scale was found in the a garage attached to the residence, White said.

An indoor growing room was also found on the second floor of Knox’s residence on the property, and a drying room was in a second building attached to a large sawmill building, White said.

Several pounds of hanging marijuana plants were found drying in the room in preparation for stripping the buds off the stalks for weighing and distribution, White said.

Police also said they found handwritten ledgers that established the marijuana for sale at $200 per ounce, or $3,200 per pound.

Whittemore was arrested Wednesday after he spoke to a Maine Drug Enforcement Agency agent by phone and then turned himself in, White said.

Whittemore said Tuesday he leases the property his mill is on from National Retail Systems Inc. of New Jersey, and the raid occurred while he was away.

Whittemore had laughed when he heard how much marijuana police say they seized.

“It’s a joke,” Whittemore had said, and disagreed with the amount and denied involvement in the operation.

White, responding to Whittemore’s comment, said, “We do not take drug trafficking as a joke, nor do I think the citizens of the Jay community do.”

White said Whittemore has a prior history of drug trafficking.