By Mark LaFlamme,Staff Writer

POLAND – A former drug agent now patrolling Poland for the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Department helped lead police to 300 marijuana plants growing in the woods near the Mechanic Falls town line.

Police and Maine Drug Enforcement Agency agents spent five hours flying over the woods along the Poland-Mechanic Falls border in search of the plants.

They then spent the rest of the afternoon braving heat and swarms of bees as the pot plants were ripped from the ground and confiscated.

No charges were filed. MDEA officials said some of the plants were more than 6 feet tall, and that all together would have fetched more than $300,000 if harvested and sold on the street.

The search for the plants began when Deputy Tom Slivinski began investigating reports that marijuana was growing in the woods and that persons with guns were being used to protect the crop.

Before joining the Sheriff’s Department last year, Slivinski was an MDEA drug agent for four years.

On Friday morning, sheriff’s deputies, drug agents and four Mechanic Falls police officers were assisted by the National Guard as the fly-over got under way.

A trained spotter joined the crew in the air.

Once the marijuana was located, agents and officers went into a bee infested patch of to remove the plants. Several drug agents were stung by while ripping up plants.

An official from the MDEA said agents are continuing to crack down on marijuana-growing operations because the people involved in the business have become more violent and territorial in recent years.

Last year, a drug agent from Lewiston was shot at in Chesterville as he rode through the woods with other agents in search of pot plants.

The bullet missed the agent, who jumped from the all-terrain vehicle he was riding and took cover.

Police are continuing to investigate the origin of the plants found on Friday.

Meanwhile, police were asking that anyone with information about the Poland pot plot or any other marijuana cultivation phone the MDEA hot line at (800) 452-6457, or their local police department.