Pubdate: Sun, 27 Jun 2010
Source: Standard-Examiner (UT)
Copyright: 2010 Ogden Publishing Corporation
Contact:  http://www.standard.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/421

12,000 MARIJUANA PLANTS REMOVED IN HILLS ABOVE CENTERVILLE

CENTERVILLE -- Police removed more than 12,000  marijuana plants on a
rugged hillside above here on  Forest Service Land on Sunday morning.
The operation  took several hours.

Centerville resident Troy Carlson, who lives about a  mile below where
the plants were removed on the 100  block of 700 East, said he was
surprised to hear  helicopters about 9:30 a.m. and then to find out
that  police had found the drugs growing there.

"We just watched all day," he said. "Of course, we are  concerned
about it. It's about a mile from our fence  line. It's not a long ways."

Carlson said the area now is cordoned off with police tape.

But that yellow tape isn't necessarily easing his fears.

Carlson said he's concerned because he has 18- and  16-year-old
children who hike up in the area often.

"It was on the steep slopes, not a place you would  commonly walk by,"
he said.

But it's the people who planted the marijuana there  that concern him
more than the plants.

"I hear that people that watch those are often armed."  he said.

He remembers having heard shots fired in the area about  9:30 p.m.
Saturday.

"It could have been somebody up there messing around,"  he said.

Police say the site where the illegal plants were  growing was
initially found by a hiker.

Officials from the Davis Metro Narcotics Strike Force  were contacted
Saturday about the marijuana-growing  operation, says a news release
from the force.

Officials investigated through Sunday and then began  removing the
plants.

Assisting was the Davis County Sheriff's Office and  Centerville
Police Department. The Drug Enforcement  Administration also provided
personnel in support of  the investigation, according to the release.

The helicopter Carlson saw and heard was a Utah  Department of Public
Safety aircraft used both to  transport safety officials to the rugged
terrain and to  assist in taking out the plants and debris left at the
  site.

No suspects were found by police when they arrived on  the scene,
states the news release.

A campsite next to the area was found abandoned.

The news release states that the marijuana-growing area  was set up
with a gravity-fed irrigation system to  water the plants.

The area was well-organized and fairly hidden by heavy  vegetation and
an abundance of trees and brush.

Police continue to investigate the scene.

According to the strike force, in the past several  years the number
of outdoor marijuana-grow sites has  increased around the state.
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MAP posted-by: Matt Elrod