News 12, First at 5 -- Wednesday, September 1, 2010

AIKEN COUNTY, S.C. -- Narcotics investigators from the Aiken County Sheriff's Office seized 135 marijuana plants in Wagener on Monday.

Aiken investigators worked with a SLED helicopter to check for marijuana in Wagener, Salley and Perry. They spotted plants growing near the 7300 block of Wagener Road in Wagener.

Capt. Troy Elwell of the Aiken County Sheriff's office said they have arrested two people in connection with the drugs and plant seeds found at the address.

Timothy Leon Woodby and Roger Dale Woodby are charged with trafficking marijuana over 100 plants, Elwell said.

Aiken County is mostly rural, which makes it hard to catch everything, according to Capt. Troy Elwell. That's why investigators say every once in a while, they take out a chopper looking for marijuana fields.

"I seen all these cars parked in front of this house and marijuana was in the back of this red truck," Junnie Starnes said, who lives nearby and came home to investigators at the house. "Sure enough it looked like marijuana from what I seen on TV."

For Starnes, it was like watching reality TV as investigators arrested the Woodby brothers for trafficking marijuana and allegedly brought out 135 pot plants off their property.

"I never thought there would be any plant in this area," Starnes said.

Especially right down the street Starnes has lived on since 1977.

"They probably thought they were far enough from the city and they wouldn't be expecting that and could get by with it," Starnes added.

On this day, the couldn't get by with it, Capt. Elwell said.

"Normally you do see these type of incidents in a rural area just because it's a lot easier to hide in a rural area, especially when you're doing something on this scale," Capt. Elwell said.

The Aiken County Sheriff's Office routinely will fly in a SLED helicopter looking for marijuana fields, he said.

"It's a great asset to get you on the property that you can't get to by vehicle or walking," Capt. Elwell said. "And you can cover a whole lot more ground, a whole lot quicker and it just sticks out."

It sticks out to Starnes too, when he hears a helicopter flying over his neighborhood.

"A lot of times if you see one passing straight on through then it's just passing through," Starnes said. "But if they keep circling and circling something's up."

And when something's up, especially if it's drugs in his neighborhood, he wants it shut down.

"They should crackdown on it because it effects the young people more than it does anybody else," he added.

Investigators say they do these routine flyovers during growing season because that's the main time they will see them being grown from up above, Elwell said.