74,000 Pounds Of Illegal Marijuana Seized By Attorney General’s Task Force

State and federal investigators seized 74,000 pounds of illegal marijuana from a barn in rural Wagoner County. That much marijuana weighs as much as 18 cars and is worth $75 million on the streets, authorities say.

The operation was run by Attorney General Gentner Drummond's Organized Crime Task Force in partnership with the Wagoner County Sheriff's Office. Tax records show the property is owned by Green Acre Sod Farms.

"We've absolutely lost our minds on illegal marijuana production in this state,” said Drummond.

Drummond said this is one of the largest drug busts in the history of the state. Law enforcement spent 15 hours, using two dump trucks and a semi-trailer to haul all the illegal marijuana away and burn it. An initial report from the Attorney General's office stated that investigators seized 72,000 pounds, but during an interview with News On 6, Drummond's team noted that it was actually 74,000.

"If you put a bunch of dried Christmas trees, thousands of them inside of a warehouse and piled them on each other, that's what we looked at,” said Wagoner County Sheriff Chris Elliott.

State and federal investigators served a search warrant at the barn last week and say it was packed full of illegal marijuana. Drummond says the investigation started with a tip about illegal activity.

"They are producing the illegal substance, they are storing it locally, until the distribution network catches up with them and they are shipping it across the United States. Oklahoma is the number one producer of illegal marijuana in the United States of America,” said Drummond.

Drummond started the organized crime task force in May and says since then, they've closed down more than 120 illegal marijuana grow operations in the state.

"I think we are pro-business and that has been exploited by people who want to violate the law, whether they are affiliated with the Chinese syndicated crime organization or Mexican cartel, or just a local mom-and-pop that have decided to go bad."

Sheriff Chris Elliott says he has never seen anything like this in his 34 years in law enforcement. He says his deputies and state agents were stunned.

"They were going wow, this is such a large amount of marijuana, how are we going to do this? Well, the sheriff's office has got resources. We are going to partner with you, and we are going to make sure this is handled,” said Elliott.

Wagoner County Emergency Management and County Commissioners crews helped haul away the drugs. Sheriff Elliott said they had to load the marijuana in dump trucks, weigh it, and then have security escorts over to the burn sites.

"We have to deliver a punch, a blow to take them out economically, physically, in every capacity,” said Drummond. "There is no quarter in the state of Oklahoma where they can find refuge. We will find them, we will seek them out, we will put them out of business, and we will put them in prison."

Drummond says no arrests have been made at this time. He encourages people to send tips to his office about illegal grow operations in the state.

News On 6 has called the owner of Green Acre Sod for a comment but hasn’t heard back.