COCKE COUNTY, TN – A major pot bust made by the Governor’s Task Force on Marijuana Eradication netted 357,500 pot plants. According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, that is more than the number confiscated during all of 2007.

TBI investigators say the plants were found growing in the Cherokee National Forest by a Tennessee Highway Patrol helicopter pilot.  When investigators and agents arrived on the scene they found a campsite that was used by workers to take care of the marijuana crop.  Investigators say the plants were being grown for a Drug Trafficking Organization and were less than two months old.  Detectives say the street value of the marijuana would have been about $700 million.  Officers say the patch had been used for several years and the growers were in the process of expanding it along with the watering system.

The TBI says no one was guarding the plants at the time of the bust, but law enforcement officials are working to find the people responsible for the operation.