BURBANK, Wa -- Growing pot in Washington is big business and this year, busts in Burbank were the biggest they've ever been. Walla Walla deputies told Action News they eradicated 134,000 plants. That's a quarter of a billion dollars pulled off the streets, the biggest ever for the county and maybe even the state.

"It's clearly the most we've ever eradicated in our county," Walla Walla Sheriff Detective Sargent Gary Bolster said.

Deputies sent Action News snapshots of their latest bust, hauling away more than 30,000 marijuana plants found just two weeks ago. It raised Walla Walla Sheriff's Deputies total to 134,000 plants for the year. For perspective, they uprooted just 32,000 plants last year. It marks Walla Walla County as the number one region in the state for outdoor grows.

"It feels good that we got these plants eradicated before they hit the street," Bolster said. "I mean, we're talking $250 million worth of marijuana."
"Why do suspect it was so large this year?" Action News Reporter Chelsea Kopta asked.
"I think they keep moving around the state to find areas to grow in."

Growers do move around. We pulled the numbers and found weed spread all across eastern Washington. And while Yakima County had it's own banner year for busts, Burbank almost doubled those numbers. Bolster said nearly every hidden marijuana grow in Walla Walla County was found in tree farms in Burbank.

"They're looking for a place that they can conceal it, a place where they can hide it, the fiber farms kind of offer that," Bolster said.

Action News spoke with a Boise Cascade spokesperson over the phone, Wednesday. Their paper mill company owns the fiber farms. They said workers are out in these trees all the time monitoring the area and if they find marijuana, they report it to the authorities immediately. The problem is, reps said, that pot grows are scattered across 60 square miles. That's like trying to find one garden in the entire city of Spokane.

Deputies suspect an organized, Mexican cartel is behind all the grows. But recently, they caught a big break. Walla Walla authorities arrested three suspects in the grows, all mexican nationals. Even the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) picked up the case.

"We're hurting the cartels by taking that amount that amount of money away from them," Bolster said. "the more we can hurt them...makes it more difficult for them to exist."

With all the grows raided at the fiber farms this year, deputies anticipate growers will try to plant in other places like local apple orchards.