AUTHORITIES SAY MORE MARIJUANA FARMERS RESORTING TO VIOLENCE

No SWAT teams were dropped into the San Bernardino National Forest on
Tuesday, and two gunmen thought to have escaped a marijuana farm bust
were not sighted.

But as activity around Monday's discovery of roughly 3,000 plants
near Lytle Creek faded, officials warned that the scenario -- in
which a camouflaged suspect opened fire to protect his lucrative crop
- -- is something both hikers and law enforcement should be
increasingly prepared for.

"People should not underestimate the threat posed by marijuana," said
Ron Brooks, president of the National Narcotics Officers'
Associations' Coalition. "This is a multi-, multimillion-dollar endeavor."

So far this year, a total of 250,000 marijuana plants that were being
grown outdoors have been seized by sheriff's investigators in
Riverside and San Bernardino counties, a marked increase from the recent past.

The 150,000 of those plants found in Riverside County represent twice
the number seized in there in 2006. In San Bernardino County, the
discovery of 100,000 plants so far in 2007 is outdistancing last
year's pace, when a single raid off Highway 38 seized more than 40,000 plants.

And while the bust southwest of Lytle Creek was the first in recent
memory that turned violent, officials said it is a trend on the upswing.

Just last week, a rifle was recovered near where detectives seized
5,000 plants -- valued at $15 million -- in the San Jacinto
Wilderness near Valle Vista.

Also cited was a shooting last year during a raid in Santa Clara
County, and several pot farmers that were wounded or killed in
Northern California in 2005.

"In the past, you'd get a few hundred plants valued in the
thousands," said San Bernardino County sheriff's Lt. Greg Garland,
commander of the narcotics bureau. "But when you're getting into the
millions, they're more willing to be violent. They become more
organized on their side of the house to protect their investment."

The violence attached to the outdoor pot farms comes as local
eradication teams also are finding a wealth of large high-potency
crops being grown under enhanced lighting inside suburban tract
homes. In early May, raids at two different homes in family-friendly
neighborhoods in Norco netted 1,700 pounds in cellophane-wrapped
bales valued at $850,000, and 1,447 marijuana plants worth $8.5 million.

A month later, sheriff's deputies from San Bernardino and Los Angeles
counties raided six homes and found a total of 4,416 plants valued at
more than $15 million.

Garland said most of the June seizures were linked to Asian organized
crime, but in the case of the outdoor crops, the operators are
"almost exclusively" Mexican nationals.

In Monday's case, a multi-agency task force that included the U.S.
Forest Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration and deputies from
both Inland counties was about to take down the outdoor pot farm when
they spotted three men who had been living at the farm. Authorities
valued the farm's crop at between $6 million and $9 million.

Before the task force officers could make arrests, officials said,
one of the men fired at them from a nearby hill. They fired back,
killing him, according to officials.

Two men armed with automatic weapons escaped into the steep, dry,
brush-covered ravine and eluded a daylong manhunt. Further searches
were canceled.

"The terrain is so rugged, and there's just so many areas they could
have gone," said San Bernardino County sheriff's spokeswoman Jodi
Miller, explaining the decision to halt the search.

Investigators still haven't identified the man killed. An attempt to
match his fingerprints failed. The Mexican consulate will be asked to assist.

Meanwhile, local Forest Service commanders are left to deal with the
aftermath. Gabe Garcia, district ranger for the portion of the San
Bernardino National Forest where Monday's bust occurred, said the pot
farmers often leave trash and poisonous fertilizers.

Hikers or campers must be aware of their surroundings whether on
marked trails or not, Garcia said. Spotting a marijuana plant, or
even a PVC pipe that seems out of place, should be a signal to
immediately turn around, leave the way you came in and alert authorities.

"They usually pick areas that aren't obvious," Garcia said of pot
farmers. "But I've seen them really close to where people are, which
scares me."

As a student at Humboldt State in Northern California, Garcia heard
about many pot farms that were guarded by armed men, he said.

He also mentioned a pot farm in Washington state where the
cultivators recently were poisoning wildlife that otherwise might
have eaten the plants.

"This is their bread and butter," Garcia said. "So it's a huge concern."