Pot field busted next to Route 66
A drug task force officer driving on US 66 spotted the tops of marijuna plants growing above a privacy fence last week, leading to a seizure of plants valued at up to $1 million.
It was the third illegal marijuana grow operation in Lincoln County since the middle of June.
Officers seized, and with the assistance of other agencies, destroyed an estimated 1,500 marijuana plants from the operation located north of Route 66 about one-half mile east of Fruit Stand Road between Warwick and Chandler.
A spokesman and source with District Attorney Allan Grubb’s staff said the estimated yield of each plant was about onehalf pound to a pound of marijuana with a street value of between $1,000 and $3,000.
“Probably between $750,000 and $1 million,” the spokesman said of the value of the plants.
The spokesman said as agents and others were seizing the plants to be destroyed that the operation is called Ginger Farms LLC.
“Everything here will be seized,” he related.
As the plants were being cut and assembled to be placed in a large hole and burned, a wrecker came and hauled away a pickup truck that was seized.
Lincoln and Pottawatomie County District Attorney Allan Grubb said no arrests have been made yet but the owners of the property have been identified.
“We’ll probably try to build a case against the landowners. We’re trying to link them or who was running the operation to the operation,” he stated.
According to a warranty deed filed in Lincoln County in December of 2020, the property is owned by Narin Ngeth and Yanuth Ngeth. The address listed for the property is 339604 E. Highway 66, Chandler.
Grubb described it as, “An unusual operation. It was completely outdoors, and set up more like an orchard rather than a regular weed farm. We just kind of happened onto it, one that was just found.”
Grubb confirmed, “We will start forfeiture proceedings on everything that was seized.”
One of the Special Operations investigators said, “This was fully unlicensed. They apparently had applied for their Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority certificate, but were turned down,” he added.
“So they didn’t get their required license from the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics. There was one worker in the field when we drove up,” the investigator said, noting, “but he took off running north. There was nobody in the house, but it looked like five to six people were living in it at one time.”
The investigator stated, “We thought it was abandoned when we drove up.”
He said a search of the house revealed some documents and electronics that were seized.
In an unrelated case, but where agents conducted their first major bust of an illegal marijuana growing operation in Lincoln County in June, a pre-preliminary hearing has been set for the owner who is charged with two felonies.
Court records show that Sal Ying Lin, Tryon, 48, made her initial appearance on July 29. Special Judge Emily Mueller has set her next hearing for 1:30 p.m. on Sep. 30.
She remains on $30,000 bond. That case was the first bust of an illegal marijuana growing operation in Lincoln County.
About a month later, investigators discovered and seized 2,200 plants and they destroyed them.
They also seized $8,000 in cash and took information of the passports of the four workers who were there on Tuesday. That information was handed over to the FBI, a source said.
The source estimated the value of the operation at $3 million. “Four Chinese workers were there and they were allowed to leave,” the source said.
The source with the DA’s staff explained the Special Operations Team is comprised of two investigators, two lawyers of which one is him, and an administrative assistant.