An annual multi-agency marijuana eradication operation led to the arrest of a Baxter County man on Thursday. According to Baxter County Sheriff John Montgomery, 52-year-old Rowland Mitchell of Mountain Home was booked into the detention center on felony counts of manufacture of a Schedule VI controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia and tampering with physical evidence and a misdemeanor count of possession of drug paraphernalia. He was released over three hours later after posting a $2,500 bond.
Helicopter spotters allegedly located a patch of cultivated marijuana plants at an area on Posey Trail in Midway. Sheriff Montgomery says the plants were found in a raised bed with a tank used as a water source for the plants. As ground officers traveled to the location, a man, later identified as Mitchell, was observed from the air chopping down and attempting to destroy the plants. The number of plants is undetermined because they had been chopped into pieces by the time they were seized.
When additional officers arrived, they allegedly found a portable greenhouse inside the residence used for starting marijuana plants indoors. The officers also located a small amount of loose, processed marijuana.
Mitchell is scheduled to appear in Baxter County Circuit Court on Thursday. The Baxter County Sheriff’s Office was joined in the operation by the Army National Guard, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, the 14th Judicial District Drug Task Force and the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
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