Monroe County probe nets 23,000 pot plants with estimated value of $100 million

An investigation in Monroe County yielded about 23,000 marijuana plants valued at about $100 million, officials said Monday.

On June 23, investigators from the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office and the Georgia Governor’s Task Force used aerial surveillance to locate the plants growing on a “large plot of land” off 2022 Flint Road, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office.

“That much pot’s ... hard to miss when you’re in the air,” said sheriff’s office spokeswoman Allison Selman-Willis.

Bernie Eisenstein of Atlanta owns the property at 2022 Flint Road. He said there had been someone living on the property, but he declined to make a statement about the incident.

“I have no awareness of this,” he said.

The find is “by far the largest marijuana field we’ve ever found,” Monroe County Sheriff John Cary Bittick said. He added that a search was executed at a residence on the property.

The plants were seized, but no one has been arrested.

“We served a search warrant on a trailer that’s on the property,” he said. “That’s all part of the continuing investigation.”

Inside the residence, investigators found cellphones and beer cans with fingerprints on them, according to an official with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office Drug Unit. The fingerprints will only yield results if the owner of the prints has been arrested before.

The plants have an estimated street value of more than $100 million, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The value of the marijuana came from the expected value of the “buds,” based on DEA standards. The pot’s estimated value is $4,000 to $4,500 per pound.

The plants were destroyed after the necessary samples were collected for the GBI.

Aerial efforts by the Governor’s Task Force continued through last week.

The investigation included assistance from the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office, Butts County Sheriff’s Office, Lamar County Sheriff’s Office, GBI, Georgia State Patrol, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the DEA and the Governor’s Task Force.

Bittick described the magnitude of the discovery as “surprising” but was pleased with the effort from the various agencies.

“That’s always a good thing when everybody cooperates like that and always gets good results,” Bittick said.

To contact writer Jeremy Timmerman, call 744-4331.

This story was originally published June 29, 2015 at 2:08 PM with the headline "Monroe County probe nets 23,000 pot plants with estimated value of $100 million ."