339 pot plants seized during raid

Authorities seized 339 marijuana plants and $7,800 in cash during a Thursday morning raid on a suspected illegal grow in the 10400 block of Hahn Road in El Paso County, the Sheriff’s Office said.

“Most of the plants were flowering and ready for harvest,” the Sheriff’s Office said on Facebook.

Members of the Sheriff’s Office Rural Enforcement Outreach Unit, the Metro Vice, Narcotics and Intelligence Division, Colorado Springs Police SWAT officers, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Calhan Police Department helped search the address.

Two people were interviewed and released “pending further investigation,” the Sheriff’s Office said.

The plants seized are worth an estimated $1,186,500. To calculate the marijuana’s value, deputies assume a mature plant yields a pound of processed pot, and a pound of pot is worth about $3,500 on the black market on the East Coast, spokeswoman Natalie Sosa said in an email in April.

the gazette