KINSMAN AREA Drug bust yields 77 plants

It is hard to prove who is responsible for the pot plants.
By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
KINSMAN -- Farmers in Kinsman and southern Ashtabula County say they had no idea that someone had re-potted dozens of marijuana plants deep in their cornfields, police officials say.
Acting on a tip, on Wednesday Kinsman police pulled up 77 plants from cornfields on Ridge and Webber Cole Roads in Kinsman, and from a field on Ridge Road a few miles past the Trumbull County line.
A Kinsman reserve officer, who also works as an Ashtabula County deputy sheriff, took possession of the five plants discovered in that county, Kinsman police Chief Leroy Long said.
Some of the pot plants were planted more than 50 rows into cornfields.
"We smelled them before we found them," Long said.
He estimated that the plants could be worth $1,000 each.
The searches were conducted with permission of landowners, who did not know the pot was there, he said. Corn grows higher than mature marijuana plants, making the illicit weed hard to spot from the road.
The plants appear to have been started indoors before being moved to the cornfields, Long said. Potting soil appeared to cling to the plant's roots.
The growers likely planned to return to harvest their plants before the corn harvest, leaving landowners none the wiser, he said.
Tough to prove
Although police have some idea who could be responsible, it is very hard to get a conviction on this type of case.
"It is really hard to prove," Long said. "No one is going out to check on the plants, and our department is too small to be watching them 24 hours a day."
Kinsman police will seek a court order to incinerate the confiscated plants, likely at a local steel mill.
siff@vindy.com