Pot-Spotting Officer Has a Keen Eye for the Green
About 15 well-tended marijuana plants were discovered by police Monday in thick underbrush in a Penasquitos Canyon ravine.
The plants were in clusters of two or three and were about 4 feet tall, said San Diego police pilot Joe Lopez, who spotted the plants while on a routine helicopter patrol in the area, 3 miles east of Del Mar.
Lopez said the street value of the plants was about $25,000.
Although the plants were mostly obscured by brush, the emerald-green shades of the leaves caught Lopez’s eye. When he and his partner, Ed Sergott, landed, they found the area so thick with brush that they hand to crawl on their hands and knees.
The growers had made a series of sloping grooves to drain water into collectors, from which the plants were watered, Lopez said. He said the area had no visible trails for access.
“Whoever went in had to crawl on their hands and knees,” he said.
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