horrorshow
New Member
This happened in my town, thankfully none of these plants belonged to me.
Hidden harvest of weed
Pilot provides aerial photos of pot fields
by Erica Brown
Local News - Thursday, August 26, 2004 @ 09:00
HIGHGATE – Pot farmers hiding their contraband crop in local corn fields are in for a surprise when they go to harvest next month.
Thanks to a Chatham-Kent Crime Stoppers tipster, the Chatham-Kent Police Service got to it first.
Const. Dave Bakker, of Crime Stoppers, said a pilot sent in more than 100 aerial photographs of 40 locations where pot is growing in southwestern Ontario.
About half of those locations are in the municipality and police went searching for them Wednesday.
"Anything we are pulling out of the ground now, is part of the drug trade," Bakker said.
"The goal is just to get it off the streets."
He said the majority of "industrial crops" of marijuana, which are visible from the air, are grown by people planning to sell it.
Pot users who plant pot outside for their personal use don't tend to plant in large corn fields, he explained.
Many of the crops pulled Wednesday are likely grown by pot farmers contracted to do it by members of organized crime, such as biker gangs, Bakker said.
The officer said the tipster came forward as part of Operation Pot Spot, a program that partners aviation enthusiasts, agriculturalists and Crime Stoppers.
The same pilot also submitted photos to help police find marijuana plants last year.
Bakker said the pilot will receive cash rewards for the information he provided police.
He said the photographs were given to police Monday.
"There is a very small window, when you get information like this," he noted.
Officers with the CKPS's drug unit, street crimes unit and Community Priority Action Team pulled plants from morning until night Wednesday.
Clad in bright yellow shirts with POLICE written across the chest, officers lined up in front of identified corn fields and set to work looking for the illicit plants.
They worked in a co-ordinated grid as they searched, criss-crossing through the fields so they wouldn't miss the out-of-place plants.
The first field officers combed netted only one small stalk.
However, the officers found plots where marijuana recently grew.
At the second field the drug squad found about 40 small plants growing among rows of corn planted behind a soybean field on Goodbrand Line.
A white van where police were storing the confiscated marijuana quickly filled up at the fourth field officers searched.
Hundreds of pot plants were found growing in the field on McDougall Line.
Farmer Peter Fleuren, who owns the McDougall Line field, didn't know anything about the illegal crop.
"I'm not surprised," he said while looking at the aerial photographs of his property.
"People have to grow it somewhere."
Fleuren said during past harvests he has spotted pot and run it over with his combine.
He always has his eyes peeled for pot plants growing in his fields, he said.
Sgt. Keith Myers, head of the CKPS's drug unit, said marijuana growing is rampant in Chatham-Kent fields.
"It's impossible to get it all in a municipality this large," he said, "but we do what we can."
Myers said pulling the illegal crops does put a damper on the local drug trade.
He noted the drug unit, in conjunction with the OPP, go searching for marijuana at least once a year.
The OPP drug unit will be searching for plants today, he said.
Bakker said police don't stake out the fields to try and catch the growers because it would be too time consuming.
As well, police don't normally lay charges against the owners of fields where pot is found because farmers are rarely the growers, Bakker said.
He noted police raise an eyebrow when aerial photos show pot plants growing close to homes or outbuildings. In those cases, officers will get a search warrant for the property.
https://www.chathamdailynews.ca/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentID=77376&catname=Local+News
Chris
Hidden harvest of weed
Pilot provides aerial photos of pot fields
by Erica Brown
Local News - Thursday, August 26, 2004 @ 09:00
HIGHGATE – Pot farmers hiding their contraband crop in local corn fields are in for a surprise when they go to harvest next month.
Thanks to a Chatham-Kent Crime Stoppers tipster, the Chatham-Kent Police Service got to it first.
Const. Dave Bakker, of Crime Stoppers, said a pilot sent in more than 100 aerial photographs of 40 locations where pot is growing in southwestern Ontario.
About half of those locations are in the municipality and police went searching for them Wednesday.
"Anything we are pulling out of the ground now, is part of the drug trade," Bakker said.
"The goal is just to get it off the streets."
He said the majority of "industrial crops" of marijuana, which are visible from the air, are grown by people planning to sell it.
Pot users who plant pot outside for their personal use don't tend to plant in large corn fields, he explained.
Many of the crops pulled Wednesday are likely grown by pot farmers contracted to do it by members of organized crime, such as biker gangs, Bakker said.
The officer said the tipster came forward as part of Operation Pot Spot, a program that partners aviation enthusiasts, agriculturalists and Crime Stoppers.
The same pilot also submitted photos to help police find marijuana plants last year.
Bakker said the pilot will receive cash rewards for the information he provided police.
He said the photographs were given to police Monday.
"There is a very small window, when you get information like this," he noted.
Officers with the CKPS's drug unit, street crimes unit and Community Priority Action Team pulled plants from morning until night Wednesday.
Clad in bright yellow shirts with POLICE written across the chest, officers lined up in front of identified corn fields and set to work looking for the illicit plants.
They worked in a co-ordinated grid as they searched, criss-crossing through the fields so they wouldn't miss the out-of-place plants.
The first field officers combed netted only one small stalk.
However, the officers found plots where marijuana recently grew.
At the second field the drug squad found about 40 small plants growing among rows of corn planted behind a soybean field on Goodbrand Line.
A white van where police were storing the confiscated marijuana quickly filled up at the fourth field officers searched.
Hundreds of pot plants were found growing in the field on McDougall Line.
Farmer Peter Fleuren, who owns the McDougall Line field, didn't know anything about the illegal crop.
"I'm not surprised," he said while looking at the aerial photographs of his property.
"People have to grow it somewhere."
Fleuren said during past harvests he has spotted pot and run it over with his combine.
He always has his eyes peeled for pot plants growing in his fields, he said.
Sgt. Keith Myers, head of the CKPS's drug unit, said marijuana growing is rampant in Chatham-Kent fields.
"It's impossible to get it all in a municipality this large," he said, "but we do what we can."
Myers said pulling the illegal crops does put a damper on the local drug trade.
He noted the drug unit, in conjunction with the OPP, go searching for marijuana at least once a year.
The OPP drug unit will be searching for plants today, he said.
Bakker said police don't stake out the fields to try and catch the growers because it would be too time consuming.
As well, police don't normally lay charges against the owners of fields where pot is found because farmers are rarely the growers, Bakker said.
He noted police raise an eyebrow when aerial photos show pot plants growing close to homes or outbuildings. In those cases, officers will get a search warrant for the property.
https://www.chathamdailynews.ca/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentID=77376&catname=Local+News
Chris
