FOR DRUG GROWERS, GRASS GREENER ON OTHER SIDE OF THE TENTS

In California, They're Taking Their Marijuana Operations To Remote
Locales, Including Private Land, National Forests

UKIAH, Calif. -- When 8-year-old Matthew Hunt and his father,
William, were shot as they hunted on their own land last fall, it
illustrated a growing danger in California.

The pair stumbled onto a marijuana garden hidden in a remote El
Dorado County section of the Sierra foothills.

They were wounded by a man police say was hired to guard the patch
and about 1,200 harvested marijuana plants. They survived, while
their alleged assailant and his purported employer are awaiting an
April trial on attempted-murder charges.

"Right now, we're starting to get into planting season," said U.S.
Forest Service spokesman Matt Mathes. "But the most dangerous time is
during the fall harvest season."

In the past few years, pot farms have started popping up in the
Sierra foothills and near metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles,
said California Department of Justice spokesman Mike Van Winkle.

What's more, authorities confirmed through drug-transaction records
seized last year that California's dangerous and heavily polluting
methamphetamine labs are increasingly tied to marijuana production.

"We saw the Mexican cartels control the large-scale meth labs, and
they're using the profits for their marijuana operations," Van Winkle
said.

In October, state and federal authorities arrested 10 people alleged
to be members of a Mexican drug cartel growing marijuana in
California national forests.

Drug agents seized drugs with an estimated street value of $200 million.

As many as eight people tended one San Bernardino National Forest
garden outside Los Angeles.

Mexico-based drug operations that once smuggled marijuana into the
United States figured out in recent years that it's easier to simply
grow the crop here.

The crops are often planted in remote areas on public land such as
California's national forests, where the number of marijuana plants
seized jumped nearly fourfold -- from 22,000 in 1999 to 100,000 last
year.

Most of the sites have armed guards -- particularly during harvest
season, when poachers might steal the ripening marijuana.

"There's where the big threat to public safety comes in," said
Mendocino County Sheriff Tony Craver.

Last year, his teams pulled up 31,583 plants, second only to Kern
County, according to the state Justice Department. Statewide, more
than 345,000 plants worth $1.3 billion were seized in 263 raids --
but just 16 people were arrested.

Kern County, north of the greater Los Angeles area, vaulted to the
top over the Emerald Triangle counties of Mendocino, Humboldt and
Trinity in remote northwestern California after deputies found a
59,000-plant garden in the Sequoia National Forest last year.

It was the largest pot plot ever discovered in California, accounting
for more than one-sixth of the total marijuana seized last year.
Police found 40 sleeping bags along with food and other supplies --
but the camp was abandoned.