POMEROY - A campaign to eradicate this season's Meigs County marijuana crop, led by agents with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, resulted in the collection and destruction of over 4,000 maturing pot plants, Sheriff Robert Beegle said Friday.

Sheriff's deputies and state agents worked from Monday until Friday spotting and gathering up marijuana plants, hoping to remove them from the field before they have fully matured and hit the streets.

The local marijuana crop is harvested in late summer and early fall.

The eradication program was a combined effort of sheriff's deputies, State Highway Patrol and the BCI, Beegle said. Officers had gathered up an estimated 3,500 pot plants by Friday morning, and that number was expected to exceed 4,000 by the end of the day.

The eradication campaign used crews in three helicopters, sighting plants from the air, and 35 men removing the plants on the ground. The eradication work took officers to areas throughout the county, Beegle said.

The main goal of the eradication project is removal and destruction of plants, Beegle said, although officers executed one search warrant and collected evience for at least one case to go to the Meigs County grand jury.

Beegle said there was nothing to indicate that this year's Meigs County marijuana crop is any larger than those of past years, although the week-long eradication effort is one of the largest in recent years.

The plants were destroyed as they were gathered up, Beegle said, except when they are needed as evidence.

According to Beegle, the eradication program cost the county nothing, other than wages for those deputies working on the project and the cost of meals for the state agents. The BCI is using grant funds to finance the program.