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March 29, 2024 3:24 am
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Major Marijuana Grow Found In Warm Springs

Lt. Troy Tanner of the Mesquite Police Dept. looks over a marijuana bedding area that was part of a pot farm discovered in the Warm Springs area of Moapa.

By Mike Donahue

Moapa Valley Progress

A major marijuana-growing operation hidden on Bureau of Land Management property in the Warm Springs area of Moapa was eradicated last week by a task force of federal, state and local law enforcement officers.

When discovered around the middle of March, the pot “farm” consisted of five bedding areas holding thousands of marijuana seedlings that at maturity would have been worth an estimated $9 million in street sales, according to Lt. Troy Tanner of the Mesquite Police Department, the task force spokesman. Each bedding area consisted of hundreds of soil-filled, 16-ounce plastic cups into which several marijuana plants had been started.

Although authorities originally believed the value of the operation would have netted the growers about $1.6 million, during eradication officers discovered each bedding area contained significantly more seedlings than first had been seen increasing its estimated value to $9 million.

Nevada Department of Investigation (NDI) officers who participated in the raid on the farm, located off Salt Brush Lane near the Muddy River, said it had all the hallmarks of several similar growing operations discovered in recent months and years throughout the Western U.S. that were linked to Mexican drug cartels. The local site is the fourth such growing area discovered within a 20-mile radius in the last year or so, according to raid participants.

The Warm Springs farm was first discovered when residents alerted a local law enforcement official after seeing unfamiliar men on ATV’s carrying shovels coming and going into the area. The local official notified a Mesquite-based drug task force known as the Southern Area Interdiction Narcotics Team (SAINT) which began conducting ground and air surveillance. SAINT is made up of officers from the NDI and Mesquite Police Department.

Marijuana, planted in 16-ounce cups, would have been allowed to grow until it was ready to be transplanted into a major marijuana farm covering three to five acres in Warm Springs.

An initial surreptitious recon of the area revealed the marijuana nursery plots, an extensive irrigation system that had been constructed to pump water from the Muddy River and a vast number of individual planting spots into which the seedlings would have been transplanted when they were 6 to 12 inches tall to continue growing.

Nearly every planting hole had been equipped with a drip line. Between three and five acres would have eventually been under cultivation by the growers, Tanner said.

“Depending on the water, the fertilizer and plant care, it would have been between 90 to 120 days to harvest,” he said.

Law enforcement officers pulled back after the initial inspection of the site in hopes of catching the growers at work. A subsequent recon, however, revealed the seedlings had been neglected and were dying leading officers to believe the site had been abandoned, Tanner said.

“Once the story started to leak out, we think a lot of the people who live out here (in the Warm Springs area) knew what was going on and would go in to check it out,” one officer said. “The growers probably started getting antsy and deserted the area.”

The pot growing operation was extremely labor-intensive, an investigator said.

The BLM property is criss-crossed with trails that wind through thick, thorn-laden mesquite, acacia and quail brush trees . All tools, all equipment, had to be carried in. As the growers prepared the cultivated beds, they would clear the ground of unwanted thorny brush and scrub and pile it on trails in an attempt to block access to their farm.

“That’s (brush blockades) a major warning sign that something’s going on in an area,” one officer said. “It’s important that when people see something like this, when they realize that something like this is going on, they stay out of the area. Just alert the authorities. These growers are armed and they generally won’t hesitate to shoot. There have been actual shootouts with law enforcement officers.”

Some 110 plants were collected from the bedding sites to be analyzed and used in any possible prosecution. Anything over 1,000 plants makes it a federal offense and officers estimated this site held approximately 9,000 plants.

“This looks small now because of the size of the seedlings, but it has a major potential,” an officer said. “This is considered a major ‘grow.’”

In addition to SAINT, other agencies involved last week included the BLM, Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Additionally, the Moapa Tribal Police Department and local Bureau of Indian Affairs officers had input into the raid.

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2 thoughts on “Major Marijuana Grow Found In Warm Springs”

  1. First off those plants were un- sexed seedlings. Approximately half of those would turn out to be males and discarded as the males are not used for consumption. So that 9 mill just became 4.5mill. Second the article states the plants would be “ready” in 90-120 days. This I also false as cannabis is triggered to flower by shortening day length so the plants wouldent have even begun to flower until the days start to get shorter this fall. Then from that point it would be 90-120 days. This puts them “ready” by about September / October. Third isn’t there something more effective for our law enforcement to be doing besides fighting a plant.

  2. First off those plants were un- sexed seedlings. Approximately half of those would turn out to be males and discarded as the males are not used for consumption. So that 9 mill just became 4.5mill. Second the article states the plants would be “ready” in 90-120 days. This I also false as cannabis is triggered to flower by shortening day length so the plants wouldent have even begun to flower until the days start to get shorter this fall. Then from that point it would be 90-120 days. This puts them “ready” by about September / October. Third isn’t there something more effective for our law enforcement to be doing besides fighting a plant.

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