Marijuana plants worth $ 1 billion discovered and destroyed in California

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(CNN) - A clue about an alleged legal hemp production led California researchers to find fields with marijuana plants. About 10 million of them.

The Kern County Sheriff's Office, with assistance from the FBI and the California Fish and Wildlife Service, executed multiple search warrants in 11 fields in the Arvin area, about 160 miles north of Los Angeles.

Of the more than 185 hectares of land, authorities destroyed around 10 million marijuana plants, the value of which amounted to $ 1 billion on the black market, according to the sheriff's office.

"These illegal marijuana plantations were grown under the guise of legal hemp production," the agency explained. The Food and Agriculture Code, as well as the Health and Safety Code, define that industrial hemp must contain less than 0.3% tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

Evidence revealed that THC levels in those fields were much higher than the legal limit, the sheriff's office said. THC is the psychoactive substance in cannabis.

An investigation is active, authorities said.

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