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Helicopters help uproot homegrown pot
August 25, 2005
By Ryan Robinson
A coordinated police effort that utilized helicopters to search from the air in support of officers on the ground led to the discovery and removal of 95 marijuana plants from nine locations across Martha’s Vineyard last week.
Two Blackhawk military helicopters crisscrossing the state forest and other heavily vegetated areas of the Island Wednesday were the most visible signs of the effort to uproot homegrown marijuana. The operation utilized resources from the National Guard, Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), and Massachusetts state police.
In a separate case, on Thursday police acting on a tip confiscated six additional plants from an area of Land Bank property behind the Oak Bluffs School.
State law enforcement officials said the eradication is timed to occur approximately one month before marijuana plants would be due to be harvested. Helicopter-supported searches are effective, according to one law enforcement officer, because the bright green color of the marijuana plant stands out in contrast to the natural, darker green foliage.
State Police Sergeant Jeff Stone, coordinator of the Vineyard drug task force, headed up the search. Sergeant Stone said a fully mature plant could yield approximately one pound of marijuana making the actual quantity seized approximately 95 pounds with a street value of approximately $1,500 to $2,000 per pound.
Sergeant Stone said each National Guard helicopter carried “spotters” who stayed in constant contact with a ground team of ten DEA and state law enforcement officers in three vehicles. The spotters located hidden patches of marijuana, then radioed locations to the ground support team, who moved in to the location to take possession of the plants.
DEA agents took the plants away for destruction, said Sgt. Stone. He said there would be additional searches in the upcoming weeks using helicopters as part of on-going investigations into marijuana cultivation.
Police sometimes rely on sophisticated technology to find plants, including Forward Looking Infrared Radar (FLIR). FLIR, which Mr. Stone said was not used on the Vineyard last week, can detect the radiant heat level a marijuana plant emits.
Despite the seizure of plants, no arrests have yet been made.
West Tisbury police chief Beth Toomey, head of the Martha’s Vineyard drug task force, said it is often difficult for police to connect marijuana plants to their growers.
She said, “People will plant on other people’s property or in the state forest so they can’t get caught.”
According to Chief Toomey, previous searches have uncovered marijuana on the Chilmark and West Tisbury town line, near the bike path that runs parallel to Edgartown–West Tisbury Road, and growing in unlikely private property locations like, “a little old lady’s back yard.”
She said arrests usually only occur in marijuana growth cases after officers find plants, and then watch the area for activities associated with cultivation.
Despite the difficulties law enforcement officials sometimes have prosecuting marijuana growers, Chief Toomey said helicopter-assisted searches provide a deterrent to the growth of marijuana. “This could become a big problem if we don’t do anything,” she said, “It can be lucrative for people to grow, and we defiantly don’t want to encourage it.”
According to Tom Ryan of the Massachusetts state police, helicopter searches are federally funded by money handed down to state law enforcement through a DEA-initiated program called the Domestic Cannabis Eradication and Suppression Program (DCE/SP) whose goal is to slow marijuana growth nationwide. According to the DEA web site, the DCE/SP relies on the cooperation of various law enforcement agencies that contributed to seizure of 3,200,121 marijuana plants in 2004.
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