BIG POT CROP SEIZED IN O.C.

Authorities Uproot Four Patches With A Street Value Of About $3 Million In A
Rugged Area Off Ortega Highway.

Orange County sheriff's deputies tread through some of the area's most
inhospitable terrain Wednesday to seize more than 2,200 marijuana plants grown
in hidden patches on uninhabited land.

The haul from four patches off Ortega (74) Highway in Cleveland National Forest
had a street value of more than $3 million, sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino
said.

The seizure underscores observations made in recent years by National Forest
Service officials: The business of growing pot on public land has changed from
former hippies planting pot for their own use to drug cartels cultivating acres
for big profits. The growers plant it in the United States to avoid the risk of
being caught smuggling it from Mexico.

Pot growing had been primarily in Northern California but has been moving south
in recent years, officials said.

"Last year we pulled 420,866 plants from national forests in California, and
this year we expect to pull more than 500,000 plants," said Matt Mathes, Forest
Service spokesman in California.

He said the pot growers have begun employing Mexican nationals to tend crops,
and they frequently use armed guards and booby traps to protect their pot from
poachers and law enforcement.

There were no sign of guns or booby traps at the site of Wednesday's seizure,
near the Riverside County line, but the growers showed sophistication in hiding
their patches and tapping scarce water sources. The patches had been irrigated
with water piped for hundreds of yards from natural springs and delivered
through sprinklers.

It was unknown whether the patches, with plants from 3 to 6 feet tall, had any
connection to other operations. Also uncertain was whether the four patches
were the work of the same crew or as many as four separate crews.

"The pot growers are pretty good at getting their plants to blend in with what
already exists; they use whatever is nearby to camouflage their fields," said
sheriff's Capt. Kim Markuson, who directed two helicopters and more than 20
deputies in Wednesday's operation.

The patches were one to two miles off Ortega Highway, away from wilderness
trails, in an area where 85-degree slopes are common and crossing the ground is
a challenge for even experienced hikers.

The fight against the growers has gone on for more than two decades.

We scour the hills every year about this time,'' Markuson said. "My first
operation was in 1986, and others were doing it before then."

This year's haul was bigger than last year's, when about 1,500 plants were
seized, but smaller than the 2001 seizure of about 2,600 plants in Trabuco
Canyon.

Officials reported seizing a record 3,000 plants in 1993 in Cleveland National
Forest.

Markuson said the search begins each year in August as marijuana plants are
approaching full growth and before they are likely to be harvested. It starts
with helicopter flights carrying observers trained to spot the hidden patches.

The flights last month located two sites with likely pot patches, and
investigators were sent in on foot to check them out, he said. The sites, which
had been well tended, were kept under surveillance for three weeks.

It was decided to clear the patches Wednesday rather than risk the marijuana
being harvested and sold on the streets.

Investigators have some leads but no suspects, Markuson said.

The deputies gathered the marijuana, which will be bagged, weighed,
photographed and recorded as evidence. Eventually it will be destroyed.

Mary Thomas, district wildlife biologist for Cleveland National Forest, said
the patches are destructive to the preserve's environmental balance.

"They drain water from other wildlife and plant species, and their fertilizer
runs off into creeks," along with herbicides and pesticides the growers use,
she said. "When they abandon their pot fields, noxious weeds grow where there
had once been indigenous vegetation."

No money has been set aside to clean up after the growers, Thomas said.