Pubdate: Wed, 17 Jul 2002
Source: Athens Banner-Herald (GA)
Copyright: 2002 Athens Newspapers Inc
Contact:  http://www.onlineathens.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1535
Author: Stephen Gurr

OFFICIALS SEIZE MARIJUANA PLANTS

Authorities did a little mid-summer harvesting Tuesday, pulling some 1,600 
marijuana plants out of the ground in Oglethorpe and Wilkes counties. No 
arrests were made, but the Governor's Drug Task force estimated they seized 
nearly $2 million worth of the green, leafy weed. ''That gives you an idea 
of the damage done to the pocketbooks of the local growers,'' said state 
Department of Public Safety spokesman Jim Schuler. At the height of 
Tuesday's operation, four Georgia State Patrol and National Guard 
helicopters buzzed the skies, their pilots on the lookout for the telltale 
light-green color that distinguishes marijuana plants from other foliage. 
The aircraft took off and refueled at the state patrol's hanger at 
Athens-Ben Epps Airport ''There's a lot of aviation pilots going home with 
a headache today after squinting into the sun and looking at treetops all 
day long,'' Schuler said. The task force, made up of state troopers, 
Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents, state Department of Natural 
Resources officers and local law enforcement officers, found some 1,250 
plants in nine locations in rural Oglethorpe County, Schuler said. Schuler 
was unsure of the exact locations of the marijuana plots, and Oglethorpe 
County Sheriff Jason Lowe was unavailable for comment late Tuesday. Another 
32 plants were seized in Clarke County after a pilot spotted them growing 
behind a Whitehead Road home while returning to the airport about 10:30 
a.m. Tuesday, Athens-Clarke Drug and Vice Unit Mike Hunsinger said. Police 
and GBI agents executed a search warrant at 115 1/2 Whitehead Road and 
charged 32-year-old Alan Leonard Gordon with manufacturing marijuana and 
felony possession of marijuana. Schuler said authorities filled up two 
''good-sized pickup trucks'' with marijuana plants, some as tall as 10 
feet. They will be burned by local sheriff's authorities -- presumably 
downwind. Each summer and fall, authorities take to the Georgia skies in 
search of marijuana plants, a time when the crops are usually coming in. 
Schuler said the operation will continue in the weeks and months to come.
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