County auctioning ex-‘pot’ farm

A former “pot” property is going on the auction block.

Twenty-five acres of undeveloped timberland seized from a convicted marijuana grower is now government property up for auction to the highest bidder Wednesday.

Valued at $5,000 an acre, the rural property near Paron, about 30 miles northwest of Benton, could raise a good chunk of change for law enforcement. It’s the largest asset forfeiture of real estate in Saline County that Prosecuting Attorney Ken Casady can recall.

The money will go to the state Crime Laboratory, the prosecutor’s office and to the Saline County sheriff’s office, whose deputies raided what was Kenneth Lee Slade’s property three times in recent years and at least once in ...