Pine Co. Land Raided, 5,500 Marijuana Plants Seized
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Millions of dollars' worth of marijuana went up in smoke Wednesday after a big find in a Minnesota field.
Sheriff's deputies in Pine County loaded 5,500 plants into a dump truck and sent them to an incinerator.
They found the pot -- worth nearly $4 million -- on a property near Hinckley just off Highway 48, and the property's owner had no idea what was there.
It's news that shocked even the local sheriff.
"This is a very quiet county, a rural county and growing fields of marijuana is not part of what's going on here," Pine County Sheriff Robin Cole said. "I live five miles from it, and I was very surprised. The plants were about chest high, so we got in there, and got them at the right time."
The raid started early Wednesday morning, and Cole said authorities don't know who planted it, how it got there, or where it was going.
Officials loaded the marijuana into a dump truck where it'll be taken across the state to a facility to be burned, stopping it from entering the drug market.
Cole said the property owner, who had no idea about the growth, has been cooperative with the investigation.
