Oklahoma Bureau Of Narcotics Recognize Rogers County For Illegal Marijuana Operation Bust

The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics recognizes Rogers County for its help in taking down a large illegal marijuana operation in March.

OBN Agents and Rogers County Deputies seized nearly 30,000 illegal marijuana plants.

OBN Director Donnie Anderson says there were around 10,000 illegal marijuana grows in Oklahoma when he took the job four years ago, and now the state is down to around 3,200. He says dismantling these illegal grow operations would not be possible without the teamwork between OBN and local agencies, like in Rogers County.

OBN called on Rogers County in March for help to dismantle a large criminal organization growing illegal marijuana near Tiawah. OBN says Galahad Farms was committing fraud by operating under the previous owner’s information.

Related: Large-Scale Illegal Marijuana Growing Operation Busted In Rogers County By Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics

OBN recognized Sheriff Scott Walton, District Attorney Matt Ballard, DA Investigator Wayne Stinnett, and County Commissioner Ron Burrows for their help.

"Without those relationships, this doesn't happen. This doesn't come to fruition,” said Anderson.

The sheriff's office helped agents serve the search warrant at the property where nearly a million dollars in cash and more than 27,000 marijuana plants were seized. County Commissioner Ron Burrows orchestrated a team to haul the marijuana away in dump trucks and destroy it.

"These people do it because they care for their communities. They don't have to do this. This is something we are tasked to do, we have to do this. We are the drug enforcement for this state, but our partners here didn't have to do this; they were here every step of the way,” said Anderson.

Sheriff Scott Walton says they are happy to assist OBN in any way because they are fighting this battle for the whole state of Oklahoma.

"I don't ever remember going down Highway 88 and seeing ten-wheeler dump truck loads full of weed, going for destruction,” said Sheriff Walton. "This takes a village. We relied on every law enforcement agency in our zip code here that was able to help."