Chilton County sheriff deputies, along with state troopers and officers from the Alabama Bureau of Investigation, removed more than 3,600 marijuana plants Wednesday morning from a wooded area near Verbena.

The confiscated pot has a street value of more than $500,000, according to authorities.

The Chilton County Sheriff’s Office received a tip Tuesday about the plants, which were some three miles off Chilton County 528, the nearest road.

Given the plants’ distance from any roadway, narcotics officers hiked to the site and camped near the field overnight. An Alabama State Trooper helicopter, equipped with a cargo net, was used to remove the drugs Wednesday morning to a drop point deputies could access. In total, three trips were made to remove all the plants.

There are no suspects yet. Davis said he hopes other evidence collected from the site will lead to arrests.

The sheriff said whoever grew the plants picked the spot probably thinking the drugs would never be found.

“They think that far out … they would never be caught,” Davis said.

Davis said he was proud of the different departments’ teamwork, particularly his county’s three-man narcotics squad.

“That’s half a million dollars of dope that won’t be hitting the streets of Chilton County, the streets of Alabama,” he said.

The confiscated plants will be buried underground, Davis said.