The Nevada County Narcotics Task Force found more than $100,000 in cash and high-powered weapons early Thursday while searching a property on the 28000 block of Highway 49 in North San Juan, sheriff's officials said.

Investigators began by serving a search warrant for marijuana cultivation, but soon found chemicals including ephedrine and equipment for making methamphetamine, county Sheriff's Capt. Jeff Powell said.

They also discovered a half pound of crystal meth, high-powered and loaded guns, pay-owe sheets, 60 pounds of trimmed marijuana, prescription medications, packaging materials, psilocybin mushrooms, a digital scale and people who were getting paid to trim pot.

Two people were arrested Wednesday after investigators arrived to search the property.

Property owner Clifford Young, 69, and his common-law wife Kathleen Dockstader, 53, were booked into the county jail on numerous drug-related charges late Wednesday, jail records show.

Investigators remain on the scene.

"This thing just keeps getting bigger and bigger," Powell said. Several years have passed since authorities have busted a meth manufacturing operation in the area, he added.

He emphasized that county narcotics officials "are not concerned with backyard marijuana growers. We're interested in the people with these commercial operations on public and private lands" who pose a threat to neighbors and recreationists who may stumble upon their fields.

For more on this story, read Friday's edition of The Union.