DRUG DEALERS BUY WASHINGTON VINEYARDS TO HIDE POT

Crop Could Surpass Grapes In Value This Year

WAPATO, Wash. - Across central Washington's fruit bowl, farmers are
buying vineyards, hoping to establish roots in the area and capitalize
on the booming wine industry.

Authorities believe some of the buyers are living in Mexico and their
vineyards are producing tens of thousands of illegal marijuana plants
- - a crop that could easily surpass grapes in value this year.

Law enforcement officials in the Yakima Valley already have converged
on seven vineyards that had been converted to marijuana operations
this summer. At least five had been recently purchased - the buyers
are still being tracked - and one had been leased to pot growers by an
unknowing owner.

Pot growers aren't just hiding their crops in national forests and
random cornfields any more, said Washington State Patrol Sgt. Richard
A. Beghtol.

"They are able to amass a huge amount of money and using that money to
go out and buy land to do their marijuana cultivation," Beghtol said.
"It's their big moneymaker."

The valley, home to acres of fruit orchards and hop fields, has long
been recognized as an important pipeline in the drug trade with easy
interstate access to Seattle, Portland and points east.

Crackdowns at the Canadian and Mexican borders have made it more
difficult to ship marijuana into the United States, prompting dealers
to establish U.S. growing operations.

A bust of more than 60,000 plants on the Yakama Indian Reservation in
2004, one of the biggest nationwide at the time, was traced to
organized crime in Mexico and valued at more than $35 million.

By 2006, authorities were seizing more than 144,000 marijuana plants
across Washington state. That number more than doubled the following
year to 296,611 plants, reflecting a rise in both drug activity and
enforcement efforts, said Rene Rivera, the Drug Enforcement Agency's
agent in charge in Yakima.

"This year, we're probably going to surpass 2007 easily, just given
the way we're starting," Rivera said.

Water use is often a vital clue. Beghtol has noted that grape vines
require much less water than marijuana, which needs daily irrigation.

Drug enforcement teams have confiscated approximately 110,000
marijuana plants valued at more than $100 million this spring and
summer in the Yakima Valley alone, and they haven't even begun their
annual aerial surveillance.

In 2006, grapes ranked No. 11 among Washington state crops with a
value of $144.2 million. Vineyards cover about 31,000 acres.

Finding farmers willing to sell their property isn't difficult. Fewer
farmers have children who want to take over the family business, and
rising costs have driven many farmers off the land despite increasing
prices for their crops.

But dealers aren't just limiting their property buys to older sellers,
Beghtol said.

In one case, drug operatives approached a farmer who didn't have his
farm listed for sale. He resisted until, asked to name a price. He
threw out a figure: $263,000 for 27 acres and no building. The buyer
showed up a few days later and bought the property in cash, Beghtol
said.

The seller had no idea the farm would become a marijuana
operation.

"The Yakima Valley is a huge player. These are big operations that are
difficult to track down," Beghtol said. "They use fictitious names,
they put property in daughters', wives' names to conceal identity and
try to thwart law enforcement from going forward with civil
forfeiture."

There have been 22 arrests this year. Authorities expect that number
to rise as aerial surveillance begins later this summer.

As arrests mount, vineyard purchases by marijuana growers will likely
decline, predicts Vicky Scharlau, executive director of the Washington
Association of Wine Grape Growers.

"I suspect after you've had numerous busts, somebody's future plan for
growing pot in vineyards is going to be thwarted," she said.