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WASATCH COUNTY -- Following weeks of investigation and surveillance, the Wasatch County Sheriff's Office moved in on a marijuana farm near Snake Creek Canyon Wednesday morning.
Authorities say there are a total of four grows located in an area of rugged terrain just south of Wasatch Mountain State Park Golf Course. Several agencies are now working to remove the plants.
The sheriff's office says it received a call three weeks ago from a concerned citizen who owns property in the area. He told them he spotted some suspicious black piping while he was on a hike.
It took deputies weeks to find the marijuana farm, and they began surveillance on the grows over the weekend. Deputies spotted one suspect tending to the marijuana plants Saturday and saw a second man on Sunday.
On Monday, nearly 60 officers from the Wasatch County Sheriff's Office, the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, the Forest Service, Parks and Recreation and the Utah Department of Public Safety moved in and waited for the suspects to return.
When the suspects came back to the grow, they knew something was wrong and ran off.
"They come around the bend and duck under this oak brush; and even with the [infrared camera] at night ... we just couldn't find him," said Wasatch County sheriff's Lt. John Rogers.
The two men are still at large, and detectives say they will probably never find them.
Wasatch County authorities say this marijuana farm, which had approximately 7,000 plants, is not as big as some that have recently been discovered in southern Utah.
"The plants in southern Utah -- which are probably a little better -- they estimate about $1,000 a plant," Rogers said. "If you half that, then this grow might be upwards of a half million dollars."
Authorities say this farm is a different from the southern Utah cartel grows in other ways. In those, the growers stay all day and work on the plants. They usually stay for long periods of time and need a lot of food and supplies.
Wasatch investigators feel like this farm is the work of people who have day jobs.
"[He] hikes up in after work and spends a couple hours working, hikes back out, goes home and goes to bed so he can go to the real job in the morning," Rogers said.
Once all the marijuana is trucked out, it will be buried. Authorities say it's too wet to burn.
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Story compiled with contributions from Nicole Gonzales and Andrew Adams.
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