MARIJUANA RAIDS BECOME MORE DANGEROUS

Tehama County Has Record Year

RED BLUFF - With more than 118,000 marijuana plants seized this year,
this has been the most productive marijuana season on record for the
Tehama County Sheriff's Department.

Tehama County is joining the rest of the state in setting a new record
for the number of plants seized. Across the state, 1,675,681 plants
were seized - up 540 from 2005, according to the California Department
of Justice .

Even with those high numbers, Sheriff Clay Parker said the department
probably only found one third of the pot gardens in the county.

And as the profits increase for the Mexican drug trafficking
organizations responsible for about 90 percent of the pot gardens, the
number and sizes of gardens are growing and so is the danger to law
enforcement and the public.

The sheriff's department pulled almost 37,000 more marijuana plants
this season than last year even though the number of gardens raided
stayed the same at 20. The numbers are following a trend that show a
rapid increase in the size of pot gardens since 1999.

Parker estimated that in 1999, his first year as sheriff, gardens
ranged in size from 800 to 1,200 plants. It is now not unusual to find
gardens with 30,000 to 50,000 plants, mostly on public land.

Deputies are also finding more weapons, ammunition and violence at the
grow sites. Oct. 3 two men were killed near a marijuana garden in Los
Molinos. "It's not like it's a victimless crime of growing marijuana,"
Parker said. "It's getting more dangerous as it's getting more
profitable."

Parker is concerned about the east side of the county in the next few
weeks after deer season opened last week.

"What we're worried about are hunters stumbling across gardens and
getting shot at," Parker said. That happened earlier this month in
Mendocino County when a man stumbled into the edge of a garden and
told police that four men fired at him with rifles.

The value of the garden has also led to more confrontations with law
enforcement. "In the past, if they knew we were coming, they left,"
Parker said. "Now they're told to stay and fight."

He added that while law enforcement has not shot anyone this year,
"there have been several instances where my officers would have been
justified in shooting, but they used other means to disarm them."

The tactics for raiding gardens change each year as growers adjust to
police tactics.

Parker said one year the department conducted night raids with night
vision goggles because those who tended the gardens slept near them.
The next year, the workers moved their bedding away from the gardens,
and the number of arrests went down.

"We have to change each year as they change," Parker said.

Parker likes his department to focus on getting arrests when they
conduct raids, versus a rip and pull program some other counties use.
This year, the department made eight arrests.

A successful raid will result in the arrest of the growers and those
further up the chain of command, Parker said.

"We're working our way the chain, beyond the field workers to the
people who bring it in to the county," he said.

Surveillance for the department begins in February when officers begin
to look for new trails, brush being cleared or pipes being laid.

The department usually begins to eradicate gardens and make arrests in
July and wrap up operations by November at the end of harvest.

The success of marijuana eradication has led to the department
receiving more funding over the years.

In 1999, the department was awarded just $60,000 in grant money for
marijuana programs.

Last year, the sheriff's department received between $250,000 and
$300,000 for marijuana eradication - all of it through grants or
outside agencies that required the money be spent specifically for
marijuana programs.

No general fund money from the county is used in the program.

Parker said some people would like to see the money go elsewhere in
his department. When he went to the board of supervisors last Tuesday
for permission to apply for more marijuana program grant funding, he
said the double homicide and another triple homicide last week in
Butte County showed the importance of law enforcement cracking down on
the drug.

Supervisor Charles Willard, who has argued that money should be spent
on other more important areas of law enforcement, questioned the
connection between the murders and marijuana. "Are you saying
marijuana caused these murders?" Willard asked.

Parker's answer was short and to the point: "Yes."

That led Willard to vote for the grant - the first time in eight
years, according to Parker.

By the numbers

Year Gardens Plants Arrests

1999 19 23,889 33
2000 23 42,614 36
2001 21 86,365 22
2002 30 37,726 16
2003 11 38,876 9
2004 19 22,362 16
2005 20 81,014 11
2006 20 118,175 8