Georgia man outraged after drug ‘raid’ over okra plants

A Georgia man is outraged after the governor’s drug suppression task force showed up at his doorstep demanding to investigate his okra plants.

Bartow County investigators on Wednesday mistook Dwayne Perry’s vegetables for marijuana plants, showing up on his property “strapped to the gills,” he told a local CNN affiliate.

The homeowner said he was startled when a police helicopter swooped low over his property, waking him up. Deputies and a K-9 unit appeared on his doorstep within minutes.

“I was scared actually, at first, because I didn’t know what was happening,” Mr. Perry told the station.

“Here I am, at home and retired and you know I do the right thing,” he said. “Then they come to my house strapped with weapons for no reason. It ain’t right.”

Mr. Perry said the shrubs in questions are okra, “and maybe a bush on the end of the house.”

Georgia State Patrol Capt. Kermit Stokes told the station that Mr. Perry’s plants “did have quite a number of characteristics that were similar to a cannabis plant.”

“If we disturbed them in any manner, that’s not our intent. Our intent is to go out and do our job and do it to the best of our ability,” he said.

The news station said authorities apologized to Mr. Perry on the scene and again to the station’s reporter.

Mr. Perry said his plants have five leaves, not seven or nine like on the cannabis plant. He’s angry at the mistake and fears that something bad could have gone wrong during the “raid.”

“The more I thought about it, what could have happened? Anything could have happened,” he told the station.