ZURICH, Switzerland (AP) — Swiss police said Thursday they stumbled across a large marijuana plantation while using Google Earth, the search engine company’s satellite mapping software.
Police said the find was part of a bigger investigation that led to the arrest of 16 people and seizure of 1.2 tons (1.1 metric tons) of marijuana as well as cash and valuables worth 900,000 Swiss francs ($780,000).
Officers discovered the hemp field in the northeastern canton (state) of Thurgau last year while investigating an alleged drug ring, said the head of Zurich police’s specialist narcotics unit Norbert Klossner.
The plantation, measuring almost two acres (7,500 square meters), was hidden inside a field of corn. But officers using Google Earth to locate the address of two farmers suspected of involvement in the drug operation quickly spotted the illegal crop.
Via Wired.com
Who knew Switzerland had two acres of land to spare for a grow op?
So a pedestrian jaywalking, could be punished after the fact if it was recorded in Google’s streetview and a prosecutor found it?
The Swiss don’t want pot infringing on sales of their main drug: chocolate.
I wish they would have included the coordinates so we could see for ourselves.
Surprising they found it, considering most photos on Google Maps and Google Earth are months, if not years, out of date. Still, an aerial photo of a grow is a legit piece of evidence.
So Google’s new motto will be Don’t Be Evil to Law-abiding Citizens?
@3 I’m trying to figure out how pot sales would actually reduce chocolate sales.
@6: What did they do that was evil? The pot growers had an outdoor grow. An aerial photographer took pictures of the grow while doing grids. Google put the pictures up on their service for public viewing. The police found the pictures and used them as evidence to get a warrant to bust the pot growers. Nothing that happened here was evil.
Bad form.
@6: What evil is Google responsible for in this case? Let’s go through what happened and check.
1. Pot growers grow pot in the middle of a corn field. (Not evil, but highly illegal)
2. Aerial photographer takes pictures of the countryside for sale to services like Google Maps. (Not evil)
3. Google puts the photographs up on their service for public viewing. (Not evil)
4. Cops see pot grow in aerial photographs and bust the pot growers. (Not evil)
Where is the evil action here?
Motherfucking web page errors. I reloaded like four times to see if the first comment showed up before I rewrote it.
The real surprising thing is the fact that there are corn fields in Switzerland.
The real surprising thing is that they haven’t come up with a Swiss Dark Chocolate and MJ dessert mint …
What on earth is a ‘marijuana plantation’? Is there a big white columned mansion somewhere in the middle of it? Is there an overseer? Involuntary servitude workers getting whipped? Scarlett & Rhett set to reggae music?
type lippoldswilen into google maps you should see it right away