Yellow Pages
* Updated *
A law enforcement raid on marijuana grow operation on national park land near Ross Lake netted so many plants that it took two dump trucks to transport them, officials said.
Local, state and federal agencies sent two SWAT teams into the camp Wednesday night, near Ross Lake in North Cascade National Park. By Thursday morning more than 50 agents were cutting down more than 16,000 marijuana plants, valued at $48 million. They loaded them into two dump trucks, and hauled them away to Chelan to be destroyed.
No one was at the camp at the time of the bust, said Lt. Richard Wiley, head of narcotics with the Washington State Patrol. But, there was evidence that about six people had been living there for several months, including beds, cook stoves, canned food, eggs and tortillas.
He said it appeared that the growers had planted the marijuana from small clone plants in June.
The operation was discovered by a helicopter pilot working on a project for the National Park Service, a National Park Service news release.
The plants grew on the side of a mountain about a half mile from the well-traveled East Bank hiking trail near Ross Lake, said Nicholas Brown, Assistant United States Attorney from the Department of Justice in Seattle.
Investigators do not have suspects in the crime. However, they believe the growers were low-end crop tenders of a well-organized crime operation.
“These people know what their doing. They’re not amateurs,” Wiley said.
• Tahlia Ganser can be reached at 360-416-2148 or at .
