MARIJUANA GROWING BY ACRE IN CALIFORNIA

State Begins Annual Crackdown And Uncovers More Illicit Operations

UKIAH, Calif. - As the state prepares to launch its annual harvest
crackdown on marijuana growers, law enforcement agencies say more
illicit gardens than ever are being found.

The largest marijuana growing operation found so far this year in the
state was uncovered earlier this month near San Diego. Agents uprooted a
total of 102,000 plants found growing on the slopes of Mount Palomar.

But it is Northern California's Mendocino County that is on track to
once again be the state's top pot producer.

Since January, 75,696 plants from mostly indoor growing operations have
been seized in Mendocino County, which routinely ranks along with
neighboring Humboldt and Trinity as the top three pot-producing counties
in the state. So much of the green, leafy stuff is typically grown in
the three-county region that it's long been dubbed the "Emerald
Triangle."

The marijuana black market in Northern California is estimated to
generate at least $1 billion a year for growers and sellers.

The state's anti-marijuana effort - Campaign Against Marijuana Planting,
or CAMP - pays for teams of additional local, state and federal agents
who move in over an eight-week period at harvest time to assist local
agents. The state also provides helicopters and other equipment.

More than 200 dope-growing sites have been identified so far in
Mendocino County, and more are being uncovered every day, said Sheriff's
Sgt. Rusty Noe. Noe, who leads the county's anti-marijuana efforts, said
most of the known sites are located on public lands or on
corporate-owned timberlands.

The Mendocino discoveries since January have included sophisticated
indoor growing operations camouflaged in structures designed on the
outside to look like new homes. Noe's unit in April also uncovered a
marijuana-growing operation inside five old shipping containers buried 5
feet underground in a remote region near Covelo.

State authorities say the discovery in San Diego and the "fake house"
operations in Mendocino underscore the dominance of large, commercial
marijuana operations in today's underground marijuana economy.

"We're seeing huge gardens everywhere, even in places where,
traditionally, marijuana cultivation is unknown," said Mike Van Winkle,
a spokesman for the state's annual program. The state's 18th year of
beefing up local efforts during the marijuana harvest season begins next
week, and Van Winkle said early indications are that more pot than ever
is being grown.

"The street value is attracting big-time operators, mostly Mexican drug
cartels and gangs who continue to move into California," Van Winkle
said.

Van Winkle said state agents have gathered evidence that the drug
cartels use cash earned in the lucrative underground methamphetamine
market to finance marijuana-growing operations. "The profits can be
huge, especially when growing tens of thousands of plants at one time,"
Van Winkle said.

Long gone are the days when the illicit cash crop was grown largely by
mom-and-pop cultivators.

"We routinely come across operations so large that we don't even have
time to mess with the small guy," Noe said.