Investigators pulled 6,752 marijuana plants from public land in eastern Skagit County on Thursday.

The large-scale marijuana grow was the second large-scale operation busted in the area within a month, and the second-biggest operation in the county in the past 25 years, said Skagit County Sheriff’s Office Chief Criminal Deputy Will Reichardt.

On Monday, investigators found the plants growing just north of Darrington while doing surveillance by helicopter. The grow was on land owned by the Department of Natural Resources.

Last month, more than 16,000 plants were discovered in the North Cascades National Park Complex in Whatcom County near Ross Lake.

Investigators believe the camps are part of an organized Mexican drug operation, which is rampant in eastern Washington and now creeping to this side of the Cascade Mountains.

“It’s one more piece of evidence that the Hispanic drug trafficking organizations that are so prevalent in eastern Washington are coming over to this side.” Reichardt said. “We’re hoping that it’s not a trend, but it looks like it’s turning into one.”

Besides the valuable plants, the growers left behind a Ruger Rifle, a shotgun, surveillance posts and “eggs, flour and tortillas,” Reichardt said.

No one was at the camp when law enforcement arrived, Reichardt said. No arrests were made, and future arrests are unlikely.

“They made a hasty departure when they saw us coming,” Reichardt said. “It’s just difficult to catch someone up there.”

The camp was spotted just north of the Skagit and Snohomish border near Darrington by a State Patrol trooper who was searching the area for marijuana with a multi-agency team by helicopter, Reichardt said.

The search was part of a tri-county effort to spot marijuana growth in Skagit, Snohomish and Whatcom counties.

Because the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office was preoccupied with the tragedies in Alger this week, the State Patrol took the lead on the marijuana bust. The plants ranged from 2 feet to 7 feet tall. There were three grow sites in roughly one-mile radius.

More than 20 officers from five different agencies helped pull the plants and airlift them to be destroyed. The agencies included the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Skagit County Inter-local Drug Task Force, the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office, the Snohomish County Drug Task Force and the Department of Natural Resources.

* Tahlia Ganser can be reached at 360-416-2148 or .