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One day after state and federal drug agents raided a marijuana farm in a mountainous area of Santa Clara County, they discovered that the scope of the clandestine growing operation was far larger than originally believed.
Early Saturday, agents from the state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement stumbled across more plots of marijuana plants that had been growing undetected since March near Mount Umunhum. The illegal weeds stood 4 to 6 feet high, just one month away from being harvested - and sold for millions by Mexican drug cartels, whom investigators believe are behind the illicit enterprise.
During the raid Friday, a state Fish and Game warden was injured in a gun exchange when a bullet tore through both of his legs. One man who was guarding the farm was killed and a second one remains at large, according to a Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department spokesman.
"He's out there somewhere," Bob Cooke, special agent in charge of the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement office in San Jose said of the fugitive. "He's armed with a high-powered rifle and he could be dangerous."
On Saturday, law enforcement officers continued to search for the fugitive while the "pot gardens" were wiped away in a daylong campaign in which two helicopters took turns airlifting at least 10,000 marijuana plants and dumping them into a waiting bin on the grounds of Los Gatos Christian Church, which agents were using as a staging area.
Neil Cuthbert, regional operations commander for narcotic enforcement, documented the work with a handheld camera.
"We're in a church parking lot," Cuthbert noted, "dropping a thousand pounds of marijuana at a time." Furthering the irony of the setting, Cuthbert pointed to a sign posted nearby on a fence: "BY STATE LAW THIS IS A DRUG-FREE ZONE!"
The game warden who was shot, 25-year-old Kyle Kroll of Mountain View, remained in stable condition Saturday at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, said Steve Martarano, spokesman for the state Department of Fish and Game. Kroll, two years on the job, was said to be visiting with friends and relatives at the hospital Saturday.
Investigators have not been able to identify either man who was guarding the huge, sophisticated operation that involved diverting spring water into a six-foot-deep pond that was then used to irrigate the gardens, all interconnected with water lines. Several camps were also found with food, bedding, equipment and weapons, said Richard Camps, task force commander with the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement in San Jose. The camps were probably guarded full-time, he said.
The sheriff's department is investigating the crime scene and the shooting.
In a pot raid in Santa Cruz County on Thursday, the Marijuana Enforcement Team confiscated 4,700 plants off a hiking trail in Big Basin Park.
"They have all these gardens all over the state," Cooke said. "What's so unusual about this is it's so close to residents' dwellings."
The marijuana gardens were within half a mile, in a direct line, of residences on the eastern slope of Mount Umunhum in the 16,879-acre Sierra Azul open-space reserve, Cooke said. The land is owned by the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, although the area where the plants were found is closed to the public. District staff had reportedly alerted authorities to the pot farm, which is in an area so remote that it takes about an hour to hike from the nearest road.
On Saturday, agents reported finding a total of eight marijuana gardens, each about an acre. At least 10,000 marijuana plants were discovered. Officials would not say what the crop's street value is, but usually, plants are worth about $4,000 apiece, which could give the raid's bounty a street value of more than $40 million.
"This isn't some hippie-dippy," operation, said Camps. "These are Mexican drug-trafficking organizations who are also smuggling cocaine and methamphetamine in from Mexico."
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2005 San Jose Mercury News
Contact: letters@mercurynews.com
Website: The Mercury News
Early Saturday, agents from the state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement stumbled across more plots of marijuana plants that had been growing undetected since March near Mount Umunhum. The illegal weeds stood 4 to 6 feet high, just one month away from being harvested - and sold for millions by Mexican drug cartels, whom investigators believe are behind the illicit enterprise.
During the raid Friday, a state Fish and Game warden was injured in a gun exchange when a bullet tore through both of his legs. One man who was guarding the farm was killed and a second one remains at large, according to a Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department spokesman.
"He's out there somewhere," Bob Cooke, special agent in charge of the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement office in San Jose said of the fugitive. "He's armed with a high-powered rifle and he could be dangerous."
On Saturday, law enforcement officers continued to search for the fugitive while the "pot gardens" were wiped away in a daylong campaign in which two helicopters took turns airlifting at least 10,000 marijuana plants and dumping them into a waiting bin on the grounds of Los Gatos Christian Church, which agents were using as a staging area.
Neil Cuthbert, regional operations commander for narcotic enforcement, documented the work with a handheld camera.
"We're in a church parking lot," Cuthbert noted, "dropping a thousand pounds of marijuana at a time." Furthering the irony of the setting, Cuthbert pointed to a sign posted nearby on a fence: "BY STATE LAW THIS IS A DRUG-FREE ZONE!"
The game warden who was shot, 25-year-old Kyle Kroll of Mountain View, remained in stable condition Saturday at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, said Steve Martarano, spokesman for the state Department of Fish and Game. Kroll, two years on the job, was said to be visiting with friends and relatives at the hospital Saturday.
Investigators have not been able to identify either man who was guarding the huge, sophisticated operation that involved diverting spring water into a six-foot-deep pond that was then used to irrigate the gardens, all interconnected with water lines. Several camps were also found with food, bedding, equipment and weapons, said Richard Camps, task force commander with the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement in San Jose. The camps were probably guarded full-time, he said.
The sheriff's department is investigating the crime scene and the shooting.
In a pot raid in Santa Cruz County on Thursday, the Marijuana Enforcement Team confiscated 4,700 plants off a hiking trail in Big Basin Park.
"They have all these gardens all over the state," Cooke said. "What's so unusual about this is it's so close to residents' dwellings."
The marijuana gardens were within half a mile, in a direct line, of residences on the eastern slope of Mount Umunhum in the 16,879-acre Sierra Azul open-space reserve, Cooke said. The land is owned by the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, although the area where the plants were found is closed to the public. District staff had reportedly alerted authorities to the pot farm, which is in an area so remote that it takes about an hour to hike from the nearest road.
On Saturday, agents reported finding a total of eight marijuana gardens, each about an acre. At least 10,000 marijuana plants were discovered. Officials would not say what the crop's street value is, but usually, plants are worth about $4,000 apiece, which could give the raid's bounty a street value of more than $40 million.
"This isn't some hippie-dippy," operation, said Camps. "These are Mexican drug-trafficking organizations who are also smuggling cocaine and methamphetamine in from Mexico."
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2005 San Jose Mercury News
Contact: letters@mercurynews.com
Website: The Mercury News
