An elaborate marijuana growing operation at a gold mine near Manley, Alaska may have been around for more than 20 years.
The ganja growing operation was set up in a room, concealed behind a moveable concrete wall, at the Eureka Gold Mine. Tipped off by a former employee, when the cops raided the place they found over 600 mature plants and 50 pounds of processed pot. The room had had an elaborate lighting system with sodium-halide lamps stretching into two 30-foot long cared out tunnels. There was an elaborate filtering system, which not only covered up the smell of the growing weed, but dissipated the heat from the grow lamps so that the snow on the surface would not melt.
The man behind this and now under arrest on multiple counts is John T. Larson, who told the former employee that the room was the real mine and offered to pay him a thousand dollars a day to harvest the buds.
Investigators say evidence at the scene indicates that the operation processed 10 pounds of marijuana per week, which was loaded into duffel bags and flown to Fairbanks.