(July 11, 2008)—Three men were in custody Friday after Navarro County authorities, working with the Texas National Guard’s Counter-Drug Aviation Division and Texas Department of Public Safety Narcotics Service agents, seized 10,000 marijuana plants that investigators said would have had a street value of $5 million had they grown to maturity.
National Guard helicopters were used to pinpoint the plants Thursday morning.
Navarro County deputies and DPS agents seized 7,500 plants ranging in size from seedlings to plants more than eight feet tall from seven hidden fields in cleared wooded areas of northern Navarro County.
Those fields were about one mile from another field from which deputies seized about 5,000 plants on June 24.
In a separate investigation, authorities seized another 2,500 plants from a wooded area just south of 329 Hardy Ave. in Corsicana.
Two men, Christobal Botello and Abel Martinez-Lopez, both from Dallas, were arrested at the scene of the seizure in northern Navarro County.
Immigration holds were placed on both, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Formal charges were pending Friday.
In the second investigation, authorities arrested Guillermo Guerrero, the resident of the house at 329 Hardy Ave.
He was charged with failure to identify and possession of marijuana, the Sheriff’s Office said.