Pubdate: Fri, 12 Aug 2005
Source: Bluefield Daily Telegraph (WV)
Copyright: 2005 Bluefield Daily Telegraph
Contact:  http://www.bdtonline.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1483
Author: Bill Archer, Bluefield Daily Telegraph
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

DESTROYING MASSIVE MARIJUANA HOARD AN ARDUOUS TASK FOR STATE TROOPERS

WELCH - While it would have most likely lasted a lot longer if it was
torched in the illegal manner, it still took West Virginia state
troopers almost an entire shift to destroy more that $21 million worth
of pot seized during two days of marijuana eradication raids earlier
this week.

"We started burning the marijuana at 5 p.m. (Thursday evening), and we
were done at midnight," Sgt. W.C. Tupper, co-commander of the Welch
Detachment said. "It was so heavy and green that we had to keep
turning it in order to destroy all of it."

Tupper led an eradication detachment made up of troopers from the
Welch and Princeton detachments as well as conservation officers of
the state Division of Natural Resources and a helicopter pilot from
the West Virginia National Guard who piloted a RAID (Reconnaissance
and Aerial Interdiction Detail) helicopter on the two-day mission.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin