MEAD, Okla. (KXII) - Multiple law enforcement agencies seized several dump trucks worth of marijuana plants from a Mead warehouse just off of Highway 70 Tuesday morning.
Bryan County Undersheriff Joey Tucker told News 12 the Bryan County Sheriff’s Office, Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and the Drug Enforcement Agency all co-operated in the seizure.
Tucker said the search in Mead is part of a bigger operation targeting illegal grows in the county and they served multiple search warrants throughout the day.
“It’s Bryan County’s mission to make sure that danger stays away and out of our county at all times,” Tucker said.
He said the problem with illegal grows is the lack of oversight.
“Our legal marijuana grows, we know what’s going in those products,” Tucker said. “We know what kind of waste is coming out of those facilities. We know what kind of people that we have at those facilities.”
Without regulation, those knowns become unknowns.
One concern is about the people involved.
“Today we pulled numerous people out that have no reason to be here whatsoever growing marijuana in the state of Oklahoma,” Tucker said.
Another concern is about the local environment.
“They’re polluting our waters,” he said. “They’re polluting our neighborhoods, and it’s something we have to deal with.”
Maybe the biggest concern is with the marijuana itself.
“It could be cut with other things that are harmful to your body, we don’t know,” Tucker said. “They’re not going to go take their marijuana and have it checked out like the other legal marijuana growers are doing.”
These illegal grows all over Oklahoma have created a problem even stretching even beyond the state’s border.
“They‘re going all over the United States,” he said. “That’s why we’re finding Oklahoma pot in Texas, Oklahoma pot in new Mexico. It’s ongoing.”
Tucker said the illegal marijuana will be photographed, weighed and taken to a destruction site.
There is no word yet on arrests, but we will continue to follow this story and provide updates as soon as we get them.
