Police and federal Drug Enforcement Administration officers shut down a budding marijuana farm on Joppa Hill Road on Thursday, July 16, seizing 139 plants and arresting one Manchester man that police said was the lead grower.

The arrest came after a two-month investigation that was a collaboration between the DEA’s high-intensity drug area task force and Bedford police.

The investigation began after Hooksett police received a tip about the growing operation. “I think all agencies involved did a very good job,” Police Chief David C. Bailey said.

Detective Matt Fleming said that, had the plants matured, they would have been worth more than $100,000. “It’s pretty substantial, especially for this area,” Fleming said.

Each plant yields about 1 pound of marijuana, he said. “Right now, the plants are starting to show size, shape and form,” he said. “These were only going to get bigger.”

John Anjim, 38, of Penacook Street in Manchester was charged with conspiracy to manufacture a controlled drug, possession of a controlled drug with intent to distribute and transporting drugs in a motor vehicle. Police said they found marijuana and pills in his car, and marijuana and cash in his apartment.

Anjim is being held on $15,000 cash or corporate surety bond at the Valley Street Jail, Fleming said. He is scheduled to be arraigned on July 27 in Merrimack District Court, police said.

Fleming said the property on Joppa Hill Road belonged to “an associate” of Fleming’s, but would not say whether the property owner was aware of the operation.

“We feel we’ve been successful in making an arrest of the primary person responsible for growing there,” he said.

The plants were well-hidden in a rural area, he said, but he declined to provide the address of the bust. Outdoor growth sites can be hard to hide because the plants need sunlight, and the growers need access to the plants, he said.

“They sort of fall to their own demise because they certainly need the ability to have sunlight and need to access the area for the grow to work,” he said.

He would not say where the tip came from, but said the plants would not have been noticed by neighbors. “They weren’t driving by 140 plants going, ‘Check out the grow,’” he said.