Like firemen battling a fierce blaze, the narcotics police and members of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) worked feverishly yesterday to eradicate a multimillion-dollar ganja cultivation, discovered on swampland in St Elizabeth on Monday.

"It is going take us at least a week to complete the task," said Senior Superintendent Carlton Wilson, head of the Narcotics Division.

He explained that his team embarked on the massive operation, based on intelligence reports which suggested there was a significant increase in ganja production.

"We had anticipated this, given the economic recession. We expect that by now people would be scrambling to make more money, using the most lucrative means, which is drugs," said SSP Wilson.

The tranquillity of the usually quiet farming communities of Slipe and Burnt Savannah, St Elizabeth, has since Monday been disrupted by the spluttering sound of JDF helicopters transporting the lawmen to the swampland.

Up to late yesterday afternoon, the lawmen said they had destroyed 14 acres of ready-to-reap ganja.

According to reports, one of the farmers had about four buckets of ganja seeds ready to sow.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg," said Deputy Superintendent Herman Miller, the senior narcotics officer on the ground, supervising the operation.