NEW LEXINGTON, Ohio -- Police in central Ohio have a multimillion-dollar mystery on their hands.

Investigators in Perry County discovered about $10 million worth of marijuana growing northeast of New Lexington.

They said a forest of pot was hidden amid the trees and weeds in some woods.

"When our pilot and our spotter went over it, I'll just tell you, our spotter started trembling, because he'd never seen anything like it," said Agent Scott Duff of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

Officials confiscated more than 6,000 plants, but they can't find the traffickers behind the elaborate operation.

Investigators had accidentally stumbled over the plants of extremely high-grade cannabis.

Investigators said it's one of the biggest drug busts in Ohio in decades, and a sign that international drug cartels are moving in.

Making the find even more unusual is that the people growing the drugs actually lived hidden among them, officials said.

"(They) had a plastic covered kitchen area, two areas they established as sleeping areas. They had all their food, their water, their supplies all kept right there," said Lt. Ed Miller of the Perry County Sheriff's Office.

While the proceeds from this operation would have gone back to Mexico, they said the product would have been sold in Ohio.

"A trend that is currently ongoing out on the west coast and it seems to be moving in our direction is that the Mexican organizations are actually coming here and establishing these plots, large plots," said Ben Cassucio of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation.