Biggest pot bust yet? Officials raid farm worth $17 million

BOULDER, Garfield County — In what officials call the biggest pot farm bust in Utah this year, an estimated $17 million worth of marijuana plants were removed and destroyed near Boulder on Thursday.

U.S. Forest Service officials doing routine surveillance in the area located the first marijuana farm at Deer Creek, about five miles out of Boulder, two weeks ago. During a helicopter flyover, officials spotted a second farm just seven miles away, at Lake Creek.

Garfield County Sheriff's deputies and other officials used GPS coordinates obtained from the flight to raid the Deer Creek farm at sunrise Thursday morning.

"The plants were about a month away from harvest and about four feet in height," said Becki Bronson, Garfield County Sheriff's Office spokesperson.

Between the two grow sites, officials removed about 17,000 plants by helicopter to later burn at a dump site.

Officials say this particular plant is a hybrid type of marijuana that is more potent, making each plant worth about $1,000. The total street value of the crop is estimated at $17 million, Bronson said.

No growers were at the sites during the Deer Creek raid or during a second raid at Lake Creek, at noon. Officials are searching for the growers or anyone involved with the marijuana farm, but Bronson said it could be difficult, given the terrain.

"It's the most dense, most rugged area. That's obviously why they grow out there," she said. "Trying to find them is like finding a needle in an unbelievably large haystack."

Officials are still searching for the growers of another pot farm, which officers raided about a month ago, six miles west of Panguitch. Garfield County became aware of the marijuana farm near Ant Hill Rock after a 27-year-old man surprised a couple of teenage girls in the area and demanded to use their cell phone.

The man told deputies other men were trying to kill him, and county officials deduced from the pine gum on his clothes that he came from a pot farm.

Bronson said that farm netted about 5,000 plants.

"There's absolutely no way to know whether the grows are connected until we find the growers," she said.

Officials have been searching the area with a blood hound and another search dog, with no results.

e-mail: lgroves@desnews.com