Elbridge (WSYR-TV) - Harvest time has arrived in central New York -- but not for the crop you can buy at the store or farmer’s market.
From now until October, police are active in the fields for their annual ritual of uprooting marijuana growing operations.
Every year at around this time, during their routine patrols, deputies in the Air One helicopter spot marijuana in the most rural of places -- but they're getting harder to find.
“They're on to us, spotting it from the air now. So, they're trying to hide the marijuana a little different than in the past … now they'll hide it in wooded areas with easy access roads,” says tactical flight officer Tom Marlin.
Deputies count on a little bit of luck, and a lot of skill.
“What we're looking for is holes in the corn -- stretches were there are openings,” Marlin says. “It's got a different color to it than normal corn. It's a darker green.”
That telltale patch of darker green was discovered from high above a cornfield in Elbridge.
“A lot of the time, the farmer isn't aware. I would say 90 percent of the time, it's not the people who own the property who are planting the marijuana,” says Marlin.
Easy to spot, but not so easy to get -- there's no good or safe place to land, so this mission will need ground support.
From the air, a Sheriff's deputy on the ground is carefully guided through the maze of corn.
“I couldn't see anything in front of my face ... just got directions in by radio,” says Deputy Joe Salvagni.
Once in, the deputy came across several marijuana plants, each worth about $1,000.
The Sheriff's drug unit will do follow up investigations, with the goal of trying to catch the growers.
