Using satellite imagery, Chinese law enforcement officials found the largest cannabis plantation known in the history of modern China. 

The discovery was announced in a statement from the China National Space Administration. Straddling the border between the provinces of Inner Mongolia and Jilin in northwest China, the operation was discovered using data from Gaofen-1, one of the most sophisticated Earth observation satellites in the sky.

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Officials did not comment on how large the plantation was, but, as China is currently amid a hard crackdown on drug use in the country, did add that along with the marijuana fields, the imagery also revealed opium poppy operations in the provinces of Heilongjiang, Hebei, and Inner Mongolia. Also evident are tunnels thought to be used for smuggling along the North Korean border, as well as in the restive Xinjiang Province. 

Gaofen-1 also revealed a number of petroleum smuggling operations in the southern province of Fujian. 

"It is impressive that they have made so many discoveries in less than a year," said a scientist attached with the space agency, who declined to be named because of the subject's sensitive nature. "They must have been aided by some powerful graphical analysis software, and the satellite's performance has to be good, too. 

"However, China is doing what other countries, such as the United States, are doing," he continued. "Using satellites at home and on a wider basis is a [common] practice by almost every government in the world." 

Able to zero in and identify objects two meters in length Gaofen-1 was recently joined by the even more advanced Gaofen-2. China hopes to have seven such satellites in orbit by 2016. Whirling around the planet in four hours, the fleet will give China an eye to just about any point on Earth. 

Tagscannabis, marijuana, Jilin, Hebei, Inner Mongolia, opium, Heilongjiang, drug enforcement, plantation, poppy