The Olympic Peninsula Narcotics Enforcement Team plans to fly high above the North Olympic Peninsula forestland this month, looking for signs of clandestine marijuana farms.
“We’re doing it when the growing season is in full bloom, so to speak,” said Bob Orth, a crime intelligence analyst with the team, also known as OPNET.
Although Clallam and Jefferson counties aren’t known as hot beds for outdoor marijuana growing, officials say that if people were to grow outdoors on the normally overcast peninsula, they would have to do it in late summer.
Growers would be getting close to harvest time now.
The narcotics team spends the year focusing on all illegal drugs, but during the sunny season, it concentrates on marijuana.
“Right now our focus is the grow operations because it’s that time of year,” Orth said.
Last year the annual hunt for clandestine agriculture was partly preempted when Hurricane Katrina tore through the Gulf of Mexico, redirecting federal resources to the areas hit hardest.
“This year everything is back to normal,” Orth said.
A State Patrol airplane will be doing the high altitude patrols, and there is a chance a helicopter or airplane from the Drug Enforcement Agency might be made available.
“We won’t know what we have until they show up at the airport,” Orth said.
Spotters look for clearings
Spotters will fly high above the forests, searching for clearings where the plants can grow.
When a possible grow operation is spotted, the information is related to law enforcement on the ground, who inspect the areas.
If growers are found along with the plants, they are be arrested.
If it appears the growers broke camp and will not return, the plants are cut at the roots and hauled away.
If there is to be no prosecution, the plants are driven to a special incinerator in Spokane once a year, along with other confiscated drugs.
At the beginning of 2006, local officials brought 30 hockey bags — huge duffel bags — across the state to be burned, Orth said.
Most came from indoor grow operations and smugglers.
Lt. Rich Wiley, head of the Washington State Patrol’s Narcotics Division said eastern Washington is more popular place for growers than the North Olympic Peninsula.