Nearly 2,400 plants located in marijuana search operation

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- Authorities located nearly 2,400 suspected marijuana plants during a three-day eradication operation funded by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Daily American Republic newspaper reported.

The joint operation started July 31 with a briefing for the nearly 25 officers from the DEA, Missouri State Highway Patrol Troop E at Poplar Bluff and Troop G at Willow Springs, SEMO Drug Task Force, Butler County Sheriff's Department, Ripley County Sheriff's Department and U.S. Forest Service, explained Missouri State Highway Patrol Trooper Brian Arnold.

Using three helicopters and one fixed-wing aircraft, the officers flew Sunday through Tuesday primarily focusing on public grounds, like those of the U.S. Forest Service, Missouri Department of Conservation and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and including the Mark Twain National Forest, Arnold said. A similar operation, he said, was conducted in the Troop I and Troop C area.

"We primarily worked Wayne, Ripley, Butler, Carter, Shannon and Oregon counties," Arnold said.

Officers, he said, located 2,370 plants and arrested one in Ripley County for cultivation of marijuana and one in Wayne County for cultivation of marijuana and possession of a controlled substance after suspected methamphetamine was found in a house.

"For our arrests, we pulled those (plants) and seized those as evidence," Arnold said.

Since this was what Arnold described as a different operation than in the past, not all the plants were seized, Arnold said.

"We located nearly 2,400 plants, but we did not pull that many," he said. " ... We took a plant count and set up surveillance.

"We may have seen something, but not necessarily pulled it."

The surveillance, Arnold said, will continue. "Normally, we don't have that much manpower" to conduct surveillance, he said.

The DEA, Arnold said, funded the officers' overtime, as well as the use of the helicopters.

Most of the plants located, according to Arnold, were in what he described as "small grows ... just spread everywhere" and ranged from 2 to 3 feet tall up to 6 or 7 feet tall.

One location, he said, had about 50 plants.

"We were hoping to make a bunch of arrests (but) that number of arrests is good for a three-day operation, and hopefully we'll make several more cases (based) on what the surveillance" reveals, Arnold said.

The number of plants located during the operation is more than officers seized last year, Arnold said. "It's a pretty good pop, but there's a lot more out there," he said.

Due to the state's general revenue funding issues, the Highway Patrol is not conducting marijuana eradication operations as it has in the past.

The eradication program is still there, but it's not a full-time program as it has been and is not "spread out among a bunch of us," explained Arnold, who, along with Trooper James Wilson, oversees Troop E's program.

"James and I have been tasked to work overtime -- days off, vacation (time)" for the program, said Arnold. " ... We're out there every chance we get. When James and I work the night shift on the road, (during the day), we're out kicking the brush around like always."

If anyone sees any unusual activity, Arnold encouraged the information to be reported to 1-800-BAD-WEED.

"When they call that number, (the information) gets to me or James Wilson; we check everything out," Arnold said. "There is no lead too small."