A tip led investigators in LeFlore County to one of the biggest marijuana growing operations they've seen in years.
"Well this is the biggest one I can remember in LeFlore County," Howard Roberts, with the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics, said. "We're starting to see this more and more. For several years we've been in a suppression mode and we've just been seeing small patches that individuals will plant. But here lately we've been running into larger patches."
Police got a tip Tuesday that there were people living on Zafra Road near Smithville, Okla., who were possibly growing pot.
"Came out here to check it out and found out it was indeed true," Roberts said. "So we got a warrant, came back and arrested one man involved."
Police say more than four thousand plants were found, all in different growth stages.
Four people were behind the operation, police said. The three others ran away when officers arrived.
About a dozen men, from several different agencies, worked to clear the field on Wednesday. To do so, they had to chop down each individual plant.
"You can tell they put a lot of work into it. They made an irrigation system to keep all of their plants watered, and they've thinned out the forest so the plants could get plenty of sunlight," Roberts said.
Narcotics officers have not released the name of the suspect in custody, but say if he's convicted he faces up to 20 years behind bars.
The three other suspects are still on the loose. If you have any information about where they could be, please call Crimestoppers at 78-CRIME.