CLAREMONT, N.C. (AP) — A field of poppy plants that could be used to make opium was discovered in North Carolina and had an estimated value of $500 million, a sheriff says.
Catawba County Sheriff Coy Reid said the only other opium poppy plant field found in the U.S. this year was in California.
The acre (nearly half a hectare) of poppy plants were in rows, similar to how corn would be planted, in a field behind a home.
“One of our narcotics investigators came to the house looking for something else. When he knocked on the door, the guys said ‘I guess you’re here about the opium,'” the sheriff said.
The sheriff’s office says Cody Xiong was arrested and charged with manufacture and trafficking by possession. It’s unclear if he has a lawyer.
Officials don’t think opium was being made on the property.
“The plants are being harvested here, and sent somewhere else where the opium is being produced from the plant,” Capt. Jason Reid said told WBTV.
Idiot. Half billion for one acre of flowers.
Idiot.
Idiot.
Are they the same poppies that are grown for flowers?
“Ow! My elbow”
“You just broke my glasses”
Wait for it
I wold have sworn they were thistles if asked.
No wonder poppy seeds cause a positive on drug tests.
Poppy seeds don’t cause a positive on drug tests.
Morons in the military have been testing that theory
for YEARS.
I knew a guy used to eat Costco poppy buns every
day, every week, just to see.
So I guess criminals now know, exactly how much they can make on Grandmas 5 acres. Oh honey I can’t thank you enough for planting the flowers !
I had a similar incident years ago when a cop knocked on my front door.
I said, “I guess you’re here about the bodies I buried in the back yard.”
Turns out he was just collecting donations for the Police Athletic League.
Boy, was I embarrassed.
@ reboot
“I wold have sworn they were thistles if asked.”
Not if you lived in Kansas.
My favorite BiL lived near Soldier KS for a few years.
There was volunteer ditch-weed pot, I mean hemp, growing everywhere in that part of KS. 15 ft tall by the creek by August! I saw it during a visit.
No law enforcement gave a crap.
But, have ONE thistle plant visible and you’ll get fined. They are dead serious about that weed there. Zero tolerance.
How much can I get for 500 acres of kudzu?
So … uhh … where can I get seeds?
Will they grow in S. Central Missouri? Can’t grow anything but rocks, now.
Well, rocks and cedar trees. And persimmons.
izlamo delenda est …
“Cody Xiong” = chineese cowboy ?
he better watch out the cia has spent over a trillion taxpayer dollars and over ten years to corner the opium market in afghanistan haven’t they ?
trying to make inroads into the opium market at the expense of the cia is like trying to drain the swamp of dc, it’s not going to happen voluntarily, too much money.
if you want to get the crooks out of dc you have to get the money out first.
When we lived in the Bay Area 20+ years ago in an old Italian neighborhood, several houses owned by little old ladies were growing opium poppies. They had no idea what they were other than poppies and they all exchanged seeds year after year. The cops came in and raided their flower beds after being discovered. They didn’t get into any trouble, but it sure was the joke of the town for a while.
1acer of poppy r worth around 1000 dollar at the most these cop r dummer than a bag of hammer they only give around 3 mg of morphine per plant if u do the math 1acer they said to n worth 500 m that like 70000 dollar per per plant