OBION COUNTY, Tenn. — Investigators took us inside a compound Friday used to grow nearly a half billion dollars in marijuana.
Deputies said six people lived and worked there for months.
On Monday, a tip led investigators to the illegal stash in Obion County, Tennessee. On Tuesday, police found 362,000. They began removing them Wednesday, a process that took two days to complete.
Yesterday investigators burned the plants in a massive bonfire fueled by 400 gallons of diesel.
Obion County Sheriff Jerry Vastbinder said those plants have an estimated street value of $434 million.
Vastbinder said this is no amateur operation.
It takes light to grow marijuana, so to get the maximum amount of light, the growers chopped down trees, then painted them green to camouflage them and to avoid overhead detection."
"This is not a mom and pop ditch weed operation," said Kent Tereece, chief deputy at the Obion County Sheriff's Department.
That's clear as you walk through the 10-acre property littered with marijuana plants already sprouting again.
"These plants have been meticulously groomed and pruned," Tereece said.
They took us past a retention pond and an irrigation system, even tunnels for generators, kept underground to help muffle the noise.
We also saw a makeshift living quarters.
"We've taken out the gas stoves and all that," Vastbinder said.
But from what's left, you can see whoever was maintaining the marijuana was serious about it. They spent time in these woods. They even had a kitchen.
"We think that when we came in, if there was anybody here, they got spooked and made their exit out the north end somewhere in that vicinity," Tereece said.
But they left behind their food and some clothes. They slept on cots made out of bamboo.
"Pretty good craftsmanship," said Vastbinder.
Th showered using a a vitamin bottle as a shower head.
"We didn't anticipate the magnitude of it," Vastbinder said.
But it doesn't stop there. Up a hill a hundred yards from where they slept are homemade drying racks for the pot.
"Well thought out, highly planned," Vastbinder said of the operation. "It wasn't just a spur of the moment idea. There's a lot of thinking that went into this."
And it'll take a lot of work to clean up.
After three horus at the compound, law enforcement found another pound of marijuana with a street value of $1,000. It's clear they have a lot more work to do.
