Zurich police stumbled across a large marijuana plantation in the northeastern canton of Thurgau while using Google Earth, the satellite mapping software, during an investigation into a suspected drug ring.[1][2]

Officers had been using Google Earth to look up the home addresses of two farmers suspected of involvement in the operation when they quickly spotted the 7,500-square-metre plot hidden inside a larger cornfield.[2] The head of Zurich police’s specialist narcotics unit, Norbert Klossner, called it an interesting chance discovery.[1][2]

The investigation led to the arrest of 16 people and the seizure of 1.2 tons of marijuana.[1] Police also took cash and valuables worth 900,000 Swiss francs ($780,000).[2] Police said the group had sold 7.7 tons of marijuana since 2004, earning an average of six million francs a year.[1]