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	От	EightBall
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	Дата	27.06.2000 05:53:35
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Что американские пилоты садят вместо помидоров :-)))

$500,000 marijuana crop destroyed at Arnold
Released: 26 Jun 2000

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ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. (AFPN) -- Arnold environmental division employees discovered marijuana with an estimated street value of more than $500,000 growing on the base recently.
The environmental division employees were checking plants and animals in a remote area of the base as part of routine natural resource conservation work when they made the discovery. They immediately called base Security Forces who pulled the 522 plants out of the ground and burned them at the base.

Since the summer of 1995, AEDC employees have found marijuana patches on Arnold property six times, said Joe Kirk, Arnold's chief of Security Forces. Employees and citizens have accidentally wandered into the patches and reported them or the Tennessee Highway Patrol's Helicopter Drug Eradication Task Force has identified them from the air during routine flyovers.

"We made a large discovery in August 1999 -- approximately 16,032 plants from 11 small plots," Kirk said. "The largest plot measured approximately 10 feet by 60 feet and was well hidden in a remote wooded area of the installation."

Kirk said additional checks that month, in conjunction with the Tennessee Highway Patrol's Drug Eradication Task Force's helicopter, uncovered an additional plot with about 180 marijuana plants.

"In all, we destroyed 16,212 plants in August 1999, with an estimated street value of $17 million," Kirk said. "On June 13, two employees discovered another small plot while doing a nature survey. We eradicated 522 plants with an estimated street value of $522,000."

Arnold Engineering Development Center commander Col. Michael Heil said, "People who plant marijuana on Arnold Air Force Base should understand that when we find their crops they will be destroyed; and if the individuals involved are identified, they will be prosecuted."

Heil added that the base has recently equipped base security forces with all-terrain vehicles to patrol the remote areas of Arnold's approximately 40,000 acres. (Courtesy of Air Force Materiel Command News Service)