Mexico finds massive marijuana farm in Baja California (VIDEO)
Mexican soldiers check the burning of 134 tonnes of marijuana on October 20, 2010 in the border town of Tijuana, Mexico, seized by the Mexican Army after a clash with drug traffickers. It was then one of the biggest confiscations in recent years.
Mexican authorities reportedly found a massive field with plants in Baja California.
Mexico's Defense Ministry said Thursday in a statement the crop would yield about 120 metric tons and be worth about $160 million, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The plantation, just 200 miles south of California's San Diego, stretched some 296 acres. It is located in the town of and is surrounded by a hedge of cacti. Soldiers were patrolling the area when they found the plantation, BBC reports. They found plants as high as 2.5 meters, the Associated Press reports.
No arrests were made at the scene.
The Mexican army called it the biggest marijuana field every found in the country. However, experts said the bust at a ranch called "El Bufalo" in northern Chihuahua state in 1984 was bigger.
"There's no comparison between the two busts—El Bufalo was far bigger," Alberto Islas, a security expert based in Mexico, told the Wall Street Journal. The El Bufalo ranch reportedly stretched for 1,344 acres.
The AP reports that the plantation had a sophisticated system of piped-in irrigation to support the plants.
Mexico is the world's biggest producer of marijuana. Experts predict that drug gangs in Mexico earn several billion dollars a year from marijuana sales.