Local and state authorities seized over 17,000 pounds of illegal marijuana during a raid in Ottawa County this week.
Ottawa County Sheriff David Dean said he received a call from the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics on Tuesday asking that his office assist in a raid on an alleged grow operation in Fairland.
Dean said the illegal plants were hidden among the many legal marijuana farms growing in the area.
"This grow we didn't know about — If you drive down the road you wouldn't even see it," Dean explained. "We kind of know where a lot of our legal grows are, but this one I didn't even know was out there."
OBN investigators received information that the alleged grow operator did not have the proper licensing or permits required by the state.
During the 10-and-a-half-hour raid, authorities say they found over 3,200 live plants, nearly 800 hanging to dry, and around 17,600 pounds of processed marijuana. The estimated street value of the marijuana is between 32 to 43 million dollars, officials say.
Officials say they aren't sure how long the illegal grow has been there. Detectives spoke to neighbors who thought it was just another legal marijuana farm and didn't think anything of it.
"There's grows everywhere so the neighbors are just thinking 'it's another grow,'" Dean said. "They wouldn't know that it was illegal either."
Deputies arrested six men five of which have immigration holds from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Dean said. Those men are currently booked in the Ottawa County jail on various complaints of the unlawful cultivation of marijuana, trafficking in marijuana, and the possession of firearms in commission of a felony.
Authorities said they found two rifles, one shot gun, and one handgun.
