Officials begin uprooting big marijuana farm in Jefferson Davis County

Published 9:00 pm Monday, August 21, 2017

PRENTISS (AP) — Investigators are remaining through the weekend at the site of what they’re calling the largest outdoor marijuana farm found in Mississippi since the 1980s.

Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics Director John Dowdy said agents found a patch with 5,000 more plants at the Jefferson Davis County site on Friday, bringing the total found to 20,000.

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An underground bunker and generators were also found, but authorities haven’t identified any suspected farmers.

With each mature plant yielding a pound of processed marijuana, Dowdy says all the marijuana at the site near Prentiss could have sold for more than $20 million.

Dowdy says it’s a “huge task” to find, count and destroy so many marijuana plants. Helping the bureau are other law enforcement agencies, local and state government and a private construction company.