With the help of a pot-spotting helicopter from Puerto Rico, U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency agents over the weekend yanked more than 1,000 marijuana plants out of the ground on St. Croix’s lush north shore.
The effort to weed out the weed is part of an ongoing operation by local and federal law enforcement agencies against street-level drug dealers, said Paul Toner, the DEA’s resident agent on St. Croix.
The operation began on Oct. 27 and has resulted in the arrests of 13 people on charges involving crack cocaine or marijuana. The charges against the accused, who have all been released except for one, are pending until laboratory reports are returned, Toner said. He added that he expects more arrests and seizures to follow.
"What we’re using these arrests for is to generate larger cases against mid-level traffickers," Toner said.
Although some 1,100 plants were found in the La Vallee area near Cane Bay, Toner said no arrests have been made in connection with that discovery. The plants were one foot to four feet tall and of fair quality. Toner declined to place a value on what was pulled from the ground on Saturday.
An additional 220 plants belonging to Pervin Charles Proctor, 30, were found over the weekend at and near his Hill Street home in Christiansted as well as in the Grove Place area, according to Toner.
Seven of the 13 individuals from across the island were arrested for marijuana, the most being just under four ounces. Four were arrested for crack and two were arrested with marijuana and crack. Of the 13, seven have a criminal history, according to DEA information supplied by Toner.
"We just want to keep the pressure on the low-level guys," Toner said. "We find that historically they’re the most violent."
Toner said the thousands of pot plants pulled up Saturday will be incinerated after being tested and catalogued as evidence. He did not say where the burning would take place.
