Treasure-Troves of Marijuana in Arizona Desert? Apparently So.

Two hunters found 126 pounds of bundled pot lying in the desert near Sasabe, about a month after Border Patrol agents discovered 220 pounds of pot south of Dateland.Arizona's desert has apparently become a treasure-hunters paradise -- if your idea of treasure is tens of thousands of dollars worth of...

By Ray Stern

January 3, 2012

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Two hunters found 126 pounds of bundled pot lying in the desert near Sasabe, about a month after Border Patrol agents discovered 220 pounds of pot south of Dateland.

Arizona's desert has apparently become a treasure-hunters paradise -- if your idea of treasure is tens of thousands of dollars worth of marijuana. Authorities figure the find was worth more than $100,000, (which is about $50 an ounce), according to the Arizona Republic write-up of the incident.

The Scottsdale hunters turned in the booty to National Guard troops who help patrol Arizona's border with Mexico.

After the Dateland find, a spokesman for the Border Patrol told us it probably wasn't a good idea to go looking for weed dumped by smugglers, who might challenge a claim to it.

Authorities say hiking or hunting the back-country near the border is relatively unsafe, anyway, because of the unchecked smuggling activity.

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Ray Stern is the former news editor of Phoenix New Times. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Arizona for more than two decades. He's won numerous awards for his reporting, including the Arizona Press Club's Don Bolles Award for Investigative Journalism.