New Henderson County Sheriff Botie Hillhouse campaigned on a promise to bust drug dealers in the Cedar Creek Lake area, and he interrupted the flow of almost $9 million of weed this month.
Cedar Creek Lake is known as a popular recreation and retirement community, but it is also a hotbed of illegal drug activity according to law enforcement officers. Hillhouse and other law enforcement officers say they want to change that image.
Air and ground searches uncovered almost 9,000 plants in mid-September. Local and federal officials worked together to destroy the mature crop of plants standing seven-foot high.
The pot plants were found in two fields in a heavily-wooded area near FM 315 south of Moore Station in Henderson County. The owners of the property cooperated with officials in the destruction of the plants.
Drug agents estimated the value of the crops at almost $9 million.
A federal helicopter lifted the plants out of the fields after officials cut them down.
Anyone who grows the plants on another person’s property faces charges of criminal trespassing and illegal drug charges.
U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency officials said the seizure marked the sixth raid on a marijuana fields in East Texas in a month’s time.
Local and federal officials also are battling meth production and sales in East Texas.