An Illicit Cannabis Farm So Huge, It Was Visible From Space

Okay, we know that NASA's international space station and other such spacecraft can pick up a heck of a lot of what's happening here on the third planet from the sun, but an indoor cannabis farm? 

Last week, authorities in Nevada, along with an impressive backup of national law enforcers, raided what they called the largest illegal marijuana grow in Douglas County history, and perhaps one of the largest ever to be discovered in the state, which legalized adult-use cannabis in 2017.

With 80 workers, the cannabis farm was also the largest employer in the area, rivaling several smaller firms in Douglas County, which is located some 20 miles south of Nevada’s state capital Carson City and borders Lake Tahoe.

The numbers associated with the 160-greenhouse pot grow on 22 acres of land were "staggering," reported the Record-Courier.

What did authorities do with 62 tons of weed? 

They buried it, "…hopefully deep enough to discourage anyone else from trying to dig it up," according to the newspaper. 

"These were not little plants either. People working on-site in rugged conditions that wouldn’t pass muster in any regulated business tended the plants for months. Residents first started reporting the site last summer (2020) even as the last embers of the Numbers Fire were growing cold." 

The Numbers Fire was a wildfire that burned nearly 19,000 acres in Nevada's Pine Nut Mountains in July 2020 and damaged over 1,000 homes. 

What took authorities so long to raid site?

The Record-Courier opined that law enforcement may have been waiting to uncover the source of funding in the hope of busting a sophisticated criminal enterprise and then tracking down the kingpins.

Meanwhile, when the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, the DEA, Homeland Security Investigations, Bureau of Indian Affairs, the FBI, the Washoe Tribal Police Department Nevada Division of Investigation and several other local law enforcers finally raided the cannabis greenhouses, they detained approximately 80 people for questioning, per the Sheriff's webpage.

But only two were arrested – one for an immigration violation and one for possession of a controlled substance that wasn't marijuana. 

It seems, for now at least, the authorities' chances of tracking down the cannabis kingpins might have gotten buried with the 62 tons of weed.