A large marijuana growing operation perhaps the largest ever to be found on the Wasatch Front - came down at the hands of investigators from the Utah Department of Public Safety's narcotics unit in Emigration Canyon Tuesday.
Deer hunters stumbled onto the crop of more than 1,000 plants and then called police Monday, DPS Criminal Investigations Divisions Lt. Gil Garcia said.Garcia estimates the crop, which covered more than 1.5 acres and was divided into seven or eight small plots, is worth about $700,000.
Investigators were still taking inventory of the operation Tuesday and planned to begin hauling out the cut plants and growing materials Wednesday. The crop is located on federal land two to three miles to the north of Little Dell reservoir off of Emigration Canyon Road. The field is about two miles from the nearest residence.
As far as growing operations go, this one was very sophisticated, he added.
"They had actually cleared ground, set up a drip irrigation system and wire racks to do their drying. There was even a fire hose up there in case of fire," Garcia said. "They really knew what they were doing."
Growers had used the felled trees and other plants to build fences around the crop to keep deer away. A campsite of several tents indicates that the growers were living at the site, but no one was arrested Tuesday.
The hunter who contacted DPS said he saw four to six people when he and his friend stumbled on the field, and he actually had contact with one man, who asked him not to tell anyone what they were doing, Garcia said. A second hunter contacted the Department of Wildlife Resources, which was assisting in the plant eradication.
Investigators speculate the growers tended this crop through the summer and guessed that it might be the second crop harvested. A portion of the fields discovered Monday had already been cut and set out for drying. It is late in the year to be growing marijuana in this area, Garcia said.
The majority of Utah's marijuana fields are found in the southern part of the state; however, investigators have cleared fields in Box Elder and Cache counties, Garcia said.
It is also unusually large.
The average field netted by investigators contains between 50 and 100 plants. The 1,000 plants found Monday make this one of the state's largest marijuana busts.