LORDSTOWN Police seize marijuana in cornfield

Recent county raids have netted more than $4 million in marijuana plants.
By SHERRI L. SHAULIS
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
LORDSTOWN -- Though it's not as large as other recent seizures in the county, village authorities say it's pretty big for them.
Lordstown police recovered five marijuana plants, valued at about $1,000 each, in the village Tuesday evening, Chief Brent Milhoan said.
A trooper from the Ohio State Highway Patrol was conducting a routine fly-over of the area, looking for marijuana, when he saw the 6- to 7-foot plants and five holes where others were recently harvested, Milhoan said.
"They were found in a cornfield on the northeast corner of Tod Avenue and Hallock-Young Road, about 200 yards off the roadway," he said.
Milhoan said Wednesday he's unsure who owns the property, but he doubts the landowner is involved.
What happens
Since legitimate farmers don't normally visit cornfields for months before harvest, the fields become prime spots for people to enter at night and plant the illegal drug.
Milhoan said the fresh holes tell authorities someone removed some plants within the past few days and were probably planning to gather the others before the cornfield was harvested.
Last month, deputy sheriffs with a joint anti-drug task force of authorities from Trumbull, Ashtabula and Geauga counties uprooted 2,000 marijuana plants hidden in cornfields in southern Ashtabula County.
Other raids in August netted 400 plants from a Kinsman field and several seizures garnered about 2,000 plants in Kinsman and Gustavus.
Weathersfield police also conducted a raid this month at a Salt Springs Road home, seizing more than $250,000 worth of marijuana plants. That raid netted 277 plants worth about $1,000 each.
Total value of the plants taken so far this season is more than $4 million, more than officials remember seizing in the past.
Milhoan said the plants found Tuesday mark the biggest seizure in some time in the village.
"I've been here 15 years and I don't remember seeing this many plants since I've been here," he said.
Typically, he said, village officers get reports of one or two plants from either farmers checking the fields or riders of recreational vehicles who come across them.
Milhoan said the plants will be held for a few days at the police department, then taken to an undisclosed location and destroyed.
slshaulis@vindy.com