Miscreants secretly plant marijuana among corn rows

By DAVE WILKINS

Capital Press

Farmers in south-central Idaho may want to exercise added caution when working their fields as more than 7,000 marijuana plants have been found in area corn fields this summer.

The discovery of the marijuana plants in local corn fields raises safety concerns, said Brent Olmstead, executive director of Milk Producers of Idaho.

"If (pot growers) are brazen enough to put marijuana in somebody else's fields, they're probably brazen enough to protect it," he said in an interview.

Local law enforcement officials recently seized 4,958 marijuana plants in Gooding County and 2,249 plants in Jerome County.

Officials estimate the street value of the pot at about $15 million.

Gooding and Jerome counties are two of the state's leading milk producers. Corn grown in the area is mostly fed to dairy cows.

This isn't the first time that Idaho corn fields have concealed marijuana plants, but law enforcement officials said it's one of the largest such seizures on record.

"To my knowledge it's the largest seizure of marijuana in Jerome County history," Sheriff Doug McFall said in an interview.

Dairy farmers and their workers should be on alert, he said.

"Our main concern is that a lot of these people trafficking drugs are armed," McFall said. "They've been known to use violence against those who stumble onto their grow operations."

Drug traffickers have also been known to booby trap remote growing sites, although none was found around the corn fields.

"It's something that farmers need to be aware of," McFall said.

Anyone encountering a marijuana growing operation should leave the area and immediately call law enforcement, he said.

The marijuana plants seized ranged from 2 to 7 feet in height, he said.

The plants were probably started in a shed or basement, then transplanted to the corn fields when they were about a foot high, McFall said.

Growing and distributing marijuana is a drug crime, but the perpetrators in this case are also thieves, McFall said. Farmers unwittingly irrigate and fertilize the crop.

"The farmer does all the work and the drug trafficker gets all the benefit," McFall said. "It's stealing right out of the farmers' pockets."

Law enforcement officials are continuing their investigation. No arrests had been made as of Aug. 17.