TASK FORCE NETS BUMPER CROP OF POT AMID AVOCADO GROVES

A narcotics task force seized about 30,000 marijuana plants hidden amid
avocado groves nestled near the Cleveland National Forest in Riverside
County during a weeklong operation, authorities said.

Vianey Medrano, 31, was arrested Friday on suspicion of cultivating
marijuana, said Riverside County Sheriff's Sgt. Shelley Kennedy-Smith.
Medrano allegedly grew more than 4,600 plants. Medrano's connection to
other marijuana locations raided, if any, is unclear, Deputy John Kaiser
said. The seizures began May 1. Seventeen locations were raided during the
week by a task force, which included officers from San Diego, the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration, the Customs Service, the U.S. Forest Service
and the state National Guard.

The pot, which the task force said was worth more than $170 million, was
being grown in heavily vegetated parts of Murrieta, the La Cresta area and
Temecula, Kennedy-Smith said. "It's a very easy area to hide, and to hide
things," she said. "All you see are groves, and rows and rows of oranges
and avocados." Authorities were tipped off to the pot by avocado growers
concerned that water was being diverted.