MEXICO CITY - Soldiers have found the largest marijuana plantation ever detected in Mexico, a huge field covering almost 300 acres, the Defense Department said Thursday.
The plantation is four times larger than the previous record discovery, at a ranch in northern Chihuahua state in 1984.
The pot plants were sheltered under black screen-cloth in a huge square on the floor of the Baja California desert, more than 150 miles south of Tijuana.
Army Gen. Alfonso Duarte said the screening, often used by regular farmers to protect crops from the sun, made it difficult to detect from the air what was growing underneath.
It was only when soldiers on the ground reached the isolated area Tuesday that they found thousands of pot plants as tall as 2 1/2 yards. The average height of the plants was about 1 1/2 yards. Duarte said they were not ready for harvest.
People are also reading…
"We estimate that in this area, approximately 60 people were working. When they saw the military personnel, they fled," Duarte told reporters. A few were later detained at a roadblock, but Duarte said no arrests were made at the scene.
He said traffickers could have harvested 120 tons of marijuana from the plantation, worth about about $160 million.
Video of the plantation showed a sophisticated system of irrigation, which Duarte said was fed by two wells. Troops will burn the fields, Duarte said.
While it's unknown how much of Mexican drug cartels' income comes from marijuana, recent discoveries suggest it remains a large-scale trade.
Last October, Mexican authorities made their largest-ever seizure of marijuana packaged for sale, a record 148 tons found in a number of tractor-trailers and houses in Tijuana. They appeared to make up a major distribution center traced directly to Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, Mexico's most-wanted fugitive, who has expanded the reach of his Sinaloa Cartel along the U.S.-Mexico border since escaping from prison in 2001.
In November, U.S. and Mexican investigators found two long, sophisticated tunnels under the border between Baja California and California, along with more than 40 tons of marijuana.
The tunnels ran 2,000 feet from Mexico to San Diego and were equipped with lighting, ventilation and a rail system for drugs to be carried on a small cart.
U.S. officials say the tunnels also were the work of the Sinaloa Cartel.
