Police officers in Oregon were able to locate a pot garden with the assistance of Google Earth, Fox News reported.
After authorities were tipped off by someone who overheard 50-year-old Curtis W. Croft boasting about all of the marijuana he was growing on his property, officials looked to Google Earth to see if they could discover anything out of the ordinary.
After online satellite images taken in June showed dozens of plants in rows, Rogue Area Drug Enforcement Team set up an aircraft to get a closer look while reviewing state medical marijuana records.
They quickly discovered Croft was allowed to grow medical marijuana for five people, which is limited to 30 plants. However, a police raid in September seized 94 plants.
Last week, Croft was arraigned on drug charges and released.
This is not the first instance where authorities busted illegal pot plants via Google Earth.
In 2009, Swiss authorities found a marijuana farm hidden underneath corn crops, seizing a total of $1.18 million of marijuana. APC Mag reported that pot users were not exactly quiet about their use of Google Earth to find potential areas for growth.
"Anyone ever use google earth to map out their prospective grow area? Seems like a great tool to me," wrote one user Rollitup.org. "It's where I found my grow spot," replied another, and "YES.. Its great, I have found lakes and streams I didn't even knew existed, Till I used it. I definitely recommend looking at it before heading out. Saved me a lot of time."
In 2006, 420 Magazine reported that the Racine County Sheriff's Department in Wisconsin used Google Earth to locate marijuana plantations in Mount Pleasant, leading to a discovery of tens of thousands of dollars worth of pot.
Oregon was the first state to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana and also one of the first to legalize it for medical use.
Twenty states currently allow the use of medical marijuana, though the amount residents are allowed to grow and obtain are limited.
