POLICE SEIZE MORE THAN 3,000 MARIJUANA PLANTS

Sheriff's deputies took down a major marijuana growing operation early
Monday, pulling thousands of plants with an estimated value in the millions
of dollars.

Riverside County Sheriff's Department special investigators and air units
targeted the Tripp Flats of the San Bernardino National Forest area near
Anza, said sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Earl Quinata.

Sheriff's investigators spotted more than 3,000 plants, estimated to be
worth more than $15 million.

The plants were fed by what investigators described as an "extensive and
sophisticated" water source, Quinata said. Chemicals and fertilizer were
also found at the scene.

No one was arrested.

It was the second major marijuana seizure in less than a month in Riverside
County.

In July, deputies seized an even bigger cache of marijuana plants in the
canyons behind Snow Creek Village west of Palm Springs.

In that operation, deputies plucked several thousand marijuana plants from
the site, sheriff's officials said.