Littering South Florida Style

If it isn't the garbage collectors, it is a story like this.

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The Broward Sheriff's Office this morning found 50 marijuana plants that had been dumped onto U.S. 27 near Interstate 75.

The sheriff's office believes that the plants may have come from a marijuana grow house somewhere in the area, and that the dump may be the result of recent BSO arrests of suspects who were accused of growing marijuana in their homes.

On Thursday, Broward Sheriff's Office deputies and Miramar police seized 183 marijuana plants -- worth as much as $1 million -- from the home a couple rented at 7801 Alhambra Blvd. in Miramar.

''Obviously someone's feeling the heat,'' BSO spokeswoman Veda Coleman-Wright said. ``They got rid of a very expensive batch of evidence this morning.''

Saturday's incident unfolded shortly before 8 a.m. when a motorist spotted 25 potted marijuana plants, averaging about three feet tall, on the side of the road on U.S. 27 between 26th Street and 36th Street in western Broward, BSO said.

The batch of plants was taken to the BSO crime lab. At about 10:30 a.m., a deputy found another batch of 25 plants (potted and three feet tall) on U.S. 27, about a half mile north of I-75, BSO said. That group will be taken to the lab as well.

A BSO pilot will do an aerial search of the area for any more plants. BSO's Strategic Investigations Division will continue to investigate the case.