According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, authorities have found a major marijuana growing operation in Cocke County. A Tennessee Highway Patrol helicopter pilot spotted the marijuana plants growing in the Cherokee National Forest about five miles from where Interstate 40 crosses the Tennessee-North Carolinastate line. At the scene, agents found 357,500 plants – more than the Governor’s Task Force on Marijuana Eradication confiscated in all of 2007. According to the TBI, at maturity would have had a street value of approximately $700 million. The operation included a campsite though no one was found guarding the patch. The Task Force on Marijuana Eradication includes the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Alcohol Beverage Commission, Tennessee Highway Patrol and National Guard Counter Drug Task Force.