Marijuana Field Found in Garvin County
By Jim Richardson
Staff Writer
Friday June 16, 2006

What first sounded like another false alarm, resulted in a major marijuana find for the Garvin County Sheriff's Department.

According to Undersheriff Steve Brooks, a call came in Wednesday reporting the discovery of what was believed to be a patch of marijuana. Close investigation revealed the green leafy plants were nothing more than common ragweed. 

Later that afternoon a second call came in from a local farmhand who thought he might have stumbled across a huge patch of pot located in the vicinity of Ruppe Road.

The next morning Lt. Rodney Wright and Deputy Travis Crawford were dispatched to the scene. Upon arrival they were surprised to fins a rather large number of marijuana plants that appeared to have been grown purposely.

"When they got there they found over 1,000 marijuana plants, from 5 and a-half feet to six feet tall,. It looks like they have been planted there by someone who intended to harvest them later," Brooks said.

"We did an eradication of the pot and I would say the street value of the marijuana is approximately $500 to $1000 per plant, which would put total low estimate at about $500,000."

While no arrests have been made as of yet in connection with the huge marijuana haul. Brooks said the Sheriff's Department is currently in the process of following up on some leads in the case.

"We do have some information on some people who might be involved with the marijuana we found and we're now in the process of following up on that We've already contacted the D.A.'s office and if the leads pan out there will be charges filed." Brooks said.

Brooks said the next step in the case for the Garvin County Sheriff's Department will be to follow proper protocol by packing all the marijuana plants in buckets before sending them off to the lab of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI).