A elaborate marijuana farm closed down last August by law enforcement has resulted in a hefty financial windfall for the Montezuma County sheriff’s department.

A settlement agreement for the forfeiture of a 600-acre piece of property owned by Richard Stimler and Garnet Myers in Webber Canyon has netted the department $270,000, reported Sheriff Joey Chavez.

The land, along with a barn and half-completed home, were seized as a result of an Aug. 19, 1999, drug bust involving a sophisticated indoor-outdoor pot-growing operation. Police confiscated 150 mature cannabis plants on the verge of harvest.

The land, seized by the sheriff’s department because it was being used for illegal drug cultivation, was sold to a buyer for $735,000, according to District Attorney Mike Green. Under a court order, outstanding debt was paid off to lenders, with the remaining $542,000 profit split between the two former owners charged with cultivating marijuana, and the sheriff’s department. Forty-thousand dollars went to the district attorney’s office.

"This is the biggest (seizure) that I know of," said Chavez of the money, which can be used only for law-enforcement equipment.

So far, he said, the department has spent $100,000 on four new four-wheel-drive vehicles, two for patrol, and two for administration. Drug-surveillance equipment including cameras, finger-printing kits, computers and night-vision goggles was also purchased.

Use of the money, not all of which has been spent, is determined by a board made up of County Commissioner Gene Story, Green and Chavez.

The pot farm was spotted from the air during the first day of the 1999 marijuana-eradication program, an annual event that utilizes a National Guard helicopter for two or three days to scan for such operations. When the farm was raided by officers armed with a search warrant, the forbidden weed was found growing among oak brush overlooking the Mancos River. Irrigation water was being drawn from the Mancos River, pumped into a cistern and then gravity-fed to the illicit crop.

Nearby, a barn was found that upon closer inspection revealed a basement with special halogen growing lights set up over containers with potting soil. The lights were powered by a diesel generator muffled by straw bales. Curing racks were found upstairs.

The marijuana crop was estimated to have a $100,000 street value.