Bolinas

MORE POT PLANTS FOUND IN U.S. PARK

Authorities have found 3,540 more marijuana plants growing in Point
Reyes National Seashore, bringing to 26,280 the number of plants
found in the park in recent weeks, National Park Service officials
said Tuesday.

Sheriff's deputies and park officials said the latest discovery was
made Sunday on Inverness Ridge, and rangers spent four hours
removing the plants by helicopter on Monday.

Authorities have been searching the park for marijuana since the
Aug. 28 seizure of 22,740 marijuana plants from six sites on Bolinas
Ridge overlooking Highway 1 near Bolinas. The latest discovery was
the result of those efforts, the Park Service said.

The marijuana was planted by a sophisticated outfit that terraced
the land, drew water from streams through miles of irrigation hose
and dusted the ground with thousands of pounds of fertilizer and pesticides.

Investigators said the nature and scale of the operation suggest it
is the work of Mexican drug cartels that have increasingly turned to
cultivating marijuana on federal parkland throughout California.

Officials estimate the value of the seized marijuana at $71 million.