Published: August 31, 2007 10:22 pm      

Special ATV safety patrol leads Fayette deputies to pot plants

Fayette County sheriff’s deputies on board ATVs rolled up on a $65,000 marijuana patch while working with a special safety program, the sheriff said.

Deputies were participating Thursday in a special ATV safety and enforcement program funded through the Southern Regional Highway Safety Program, Sheriff Bill Laird said. The program included concentrated patrols, with deputies on board ATVs, along a railroad bed near Ramsey and on the Gauley River.

During the patrol in the Gauley River National Recreation Area, deputies found a marijuana patch with about 25 plants having a mature street value of $65,000, Laird said. The plants were later destroyed, and no criminal charges have been filed. Cpl. J.L. Brown is conducting the ongoing investigation.

Laird said the sheriff’s department already has ATVs deputies use for both tactical and search-and-rescue operations, but programs like that of the Southern Regional Highway Safety Program pay for overtime that allow deputies to work on curbing ongoing ATV-related problems.

The ATVs also allow deputies to access more remote areas, and Laird said they have the chance to come across other criminal activity such as marijuana cultivation.

— E-mail:apridemore@register-herald.com