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Investigators haul out a bag of marijuana plants Thursday from a wooded area near Ivanhoe. Officers from five agencies seized 2,400 marijuana plants, with a street value of over $6 million street value.
IVANHOE — Landowner Tim Bizzell looks at about 600 of the 2,400 marijuana plants that are being pulled out of a portion of the 1,800 acres he co-owns in Ivanhoe, just off of Dr. Kerr Road, Thursday afternoon.
The plants have a street value of over $6 million.
“It is hard to fathom,” he said looking at the plants. “The sheriff’s office called me and I thought it would be a couple of plants, but when they told me it was a couple thousand, I figured I’d better come down to see for myself.”
Bizzell drove to the scene from his home in Hampsted to find officers from the Sampson County Sheriff’s Office, Duplin County Sheriff’s Department, Bladen County Sheriff’s Department, the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), investigators with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) pulling the plants from his land.
“The funny thing is,” Bizzell says, “that I was going to come out yesterday and just check out the land. There is no telling what I could have come up on. Those guys could have been there waiting.”
Walking deeper into the woods, one could see that growers had a pump with a complex irrigation system leading to the plants at separate locations on the land.
Investigators, who also found knives and machetes at the camp, said the growers had been camping out on the land for at least three months.
The makeshift camp, located even deeper in the woods, included a tent, stove, water, cans of Coca-Cola, a cooler, backpacks and plenty of garbage strewn around the camp. Also on hand was soap and shampoo that looked as if it had been recently used.
“How could you live like that?” Sampson County Sheriff Jimmy Thornton asks as he and Bizzell look at the trash and what looks to be the beginning stages of mildew inside a tent.
“It is just unreal,” Bizzell answers in disbelief.
Thornton said that the discovery came from an investigation that began “a while” ago.
“We had been watching it for some time now,” noted Thornton. “This is the second find of the same nature as we had there on Wright Bridge Road back on June 25. Fortunately, we had more information on this one than we did on that one because we had been investigating it for some time now. At the other one, it was spotted from the air during a fly over and we got right on it.”
An estimated $27 million in marijuana plants were seized at the Wright Bridge Road bust.
“This is still under investigation but we are hopeful that there will be some arrests because of this,” Thornton said. “No one has been charged at this point, but in all likelihood there will be some charges that stem from this one.”
Either way, Thornton said that he was proud of the efforts of every office involved.
“These are drugs that the parents of the children in Sampson County will not have to worry about their children getting access to,” said Thornton. “Yeah, it makes me really proud, because once again, this is a situation where all agencies are coming together for the benefit of the public to get this crap off the streets.”
The plants were seized by officers; an investigation continues.
To reach Doug Clark call 910-592-8137 ext. 123 or send e-mail to sisports@myclintonnc.com.
To the Editor of the Sampson Independent, Sherry Matthews
Three cowards; lafus, jasf, sickntired
Hypocrite; Sherry Matthews
Thank you for your moving editorial concerning the heartless cowards who post on your beloved newspaper. However, when you were calling me a coward, you left out some very important details for your socialite readers. You basically lied to them, but we will come back to that later.
You stated you couldn't really do anything to filter the postings in your newspaper, but you and I know you can.
1. You can track the posting through an IPI address and block them. Your news paper blocked mine for about two months, but then decided to let me back on when your viewership went down.
2. You can remove the comment section of each article. You're the editor. You can do that.
3. Print articles that won't generate backlash from your friends.
You also failed to mention your online paper generates revenue through it's sale of advertisement space. Businesses will not advertise on a website tht doesn't have high viewership. You know like the articles I comment on get outrageous viewership.
I know, Sherry, you got a lot of phone calls from your social elite friends about my comments and you had to the something. While your editorial was heartfelt, it was also dishonest. I know you care about your job more. The SI is privately own and the owners are in it to make money. It wouldn't look too good for you if the owners knew you were the one responsible for the paper losing money. That's why the comment section isn't going away and why I will still be allowed to post anything I want reguardless what your friends say.
Sherry, you're spineless because you let a handful of ten cent millionaires dictate newspaper policy.
I no longer will be posting on this ridiculous newspaper. i hope your advertisers will wake up and go the Mt Olive Tribune or Robesonian for their business. Good luck explaining the drop in sales of advertisement space.
John Simpson
aka lafus_crickamus (is this better Sherry?)
warhawk480th@yahoo.com