Sep. 12--A crew of up to 30 state, local and federal officers cut 151,250 marijuana plants up to 6 feet tall from the mountainous terrain around Jellico in Campbell County, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

"We used machetes to whack 'em and stack 'em," TBI Special Agent in Charge T. J. Jordan said Friday.

Helicopter pilots with the Governor's Task Force on Marijuana Eradication discovered the six patches of pot plants Wednesday while conducting a routine flyover. The closely grouped patches were so secluded that authorities had to use a helicopter to ferry the plants out of the area.

Jordan said a chopper made about nine trips carrying pot plants loaded in a sling to transport them six miles to Indian Mountain State Park for a controlled burn.

Authorities haven't yet determined who owns the property where the pot was growing, and no arrests have been made.

Jordan said someone may have been staying with the carefully cultivated pot operation when the law enforcement chopper located the patches.

"It looked like corn rows out there," Jordan said.

"These plants had already been sexed," he said. "The male plants had already been culled out, leaving the more potent female plants to mature."

Agents discovered the growers had used rolls of black piping to create an irrigation system from a cistern formed from a mountain stream, he said.

"It's the same kind of piping and other things indicating Hispanic involvement," Jordan said. Authorities also found Hispanic reading materials, such as newspapers and magazines, at a camp used by the growers.

When first discovered, authorities thought the pot patches would yield more plants than the 350,000 discovered last year in Cocke County. The Cocke County plants, however, were small while the ones found in Jellico "were the granddaddy to those in Cocke County," Jordan said.

"This was a bigger area and the plants were bigger."

Don Jacobs may be reached at 865-342-6345.

-----

To see more of The Knoxville News-Sentinel or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.knoxnews.com.

Copyright (c) 2009, The Knoxville News-Sentinel, Tenn.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.