ANDOVER - Police have charged two Dracut men with growing marijuana plants in Deer Jump Reservation along the Merrimack River.
Lt. James Hashem said yesterday the men were arrested Saturday as they tended to a crop of 21 plants.
Hashem said detectives received information from several sources a couple of weeks ago that there were people operating a "marijuana grow" in the reservation that runs from Interstate 93 to Tewksbury.
The State Police air wing helped investigators spot where the plants were growing. Once they located the clearings from the air, police parked at the ends of cul-de-sacs nearby and walked into the woods.
"It was labor intensive trying to find out where the grows were," Hashem said.
Hashem said such marijuana grows require a lot of work, watering and fertilizing, and on Saturday about 11:30 a.m., detectives saw the two men tending to the plants and arrested them, Hashem said.
Paul Ogden, 45, 10 Kettle Way, and Jeffrey Derby, 45, of 126 Kenwood Road, both of Dracut, were charged with possession of marijuana and cultivation of marijuana.
Later in the day Saturday, detectives obtained search warrants for the homes of the two men, Hashem said.
Investigators, with help from state police, Dracut police, and drug detection dogs from Burlington and Arlington, searched the two homes and seized two computers, a large quantity of marijuana, and a quantity of hallucinogenic mushrooms, along with marijuana growing equipment, and drug packaging equipment, police said.
Following the searches, the two men were additionally charged with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, possession of a class A substance, the mushrooms; and possession of a class A substance with intent to distribute, the mushrooms.
The entire haul of marijuana had a street value of $50,000 to $60,000, Hashem said.
"The operation certainly was not for personal use. This was for distribution," Hashem said.
Both men were held on $5,000 cash bail following their arraignments yesterday in Lawrence District Court, police said.
