Marion County sheriff officers, assisted by law enforcement personnel from Marion, Florence and Peabody, removed and destroyed 1,260 marijuana plants, ranging in size from 2 to 7 feet, as the result of an investigation Monday of a heavily wooded area several miles south of Peabody.
Sheriff Robert Craft said his office received a call from an individual who had discovered several cultivated marijuana plants growing in the designated area. Officers went to the location and initially discovered about 100 plants in cultivation.
Further investigation through the afternoon and into the evening led to the discovery of many more cultivated plants, which were scattered about in several separate plots. An encampment had been established by the growers in the wooded area as a base for their operation, but it was unoccupied and appeared to have been so for several weeks, according to Craft.
The case remains under investigation as of Tuesday afternoon.
