Illegal marijuana found growing in Navarro County field

NAVARRO COUNTY, Texas - The Navarro County Sheriff’s Office has shut down a large illegal marijuana growing operation.

The sheriff’s department shared a picture of a sea of pot plants as seen from the Texas Department of Public Safety’s helicopter. They were found in a field near the town of Angus, just south of Corsicana.

Sheriff Elmer Tanner said the full operation actually includes three separate fields with thousands of plants in various stages of growth.

Video from the Navarro County Sheriff’s Office shows three separate marijuana fields surrounded by very thick woods on the perimeter of a snake-infested creek about a mile from the nearest road or home.

"The operation, although it's in a real rural environment, it's more sophisticated than you might think,” Tanner said. “This operation itself has all phases, from seedlings, all the way up to marijuana that's ready for harvest. There's actually drying racks in there."

Just before daybreak, Sherriff Tanner says pumps were still running, irrigating the crops as more than a dozen heavily armed deputies entered the field and began removing an estimated 17,500 pot plants.

"You can see from the quality the plants and all the different chemicals and fertilizers and things that they know what they're doing,” the sheriff said.

Tanner says there are living quarters on the property including what appears to be a kitchen.

"We do 100% believe that they were people here, or there have been people here, because we found numerous campsite there at the scene,” he said. “We found food products. We found camping gear. We found everything that would be necessary to be able to exist there and tend those plants as a growing operation is being conducted."

Officers are still processing the scene for evidence. The fields will likely then be destroyed.

There’s no word yet on arrests.