MAHONING COUNTY – A pilot from the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Aviation Unit spotted several suspected marijuana plants growing in a Springfield Township cornfield during a flight yesterday. Patrol troopers and officers from the Mahoning Valley Joint Task Force and the Springfield Township Police Department seized 72 marijuana plants with an estimated street value of $72,000. The Mahoning Valley Joint Task Force and the Springfield Township Police Department are investigating the incident.

Over the past two months, state troopers assigned to the aviation section have spotted 564 total marijuana plants having an estimated street value of $564,000.

Marijuana plants can be detected from the air, depending on the venue in which they are planted. Coloration differences and geometric planting and growing patterns on the ground alert pilots to the probability of marijuana plants being grown among other agricultural crops.

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