LAKE COUNTY LEADS WAY WITH CAMP RAIDS

LAKE COUNTY - Lake County leads the way out of 34 counties in the
record number of marijuana plants seized this harvest season.

A grand total 314,603 plants were seized here under the Campaign
Against Marijuana Planting program (CAMP), which is the largest law
enforcement task force in the United States.

Created in 1983, CAMP is a multi-agency law enforcement task force
managed by the California Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement and composed
of more than 110 local, state and federal agencies organized expressly
to eradicate illegal cannabis cultivation and trafficking in California.

Monday Attorney General Bill Lockyer announced the State Department of
Justice's 2006 CAMP campaign set a new record with the seizure of
1,675,681 total marijuana plants during the eradication season. The
nearly 1.7 million plants seized this year are valued in excess of
$6.7 billion and surpass last year's record-breaking season by 540,989
plants.

A total of 751,287 plants were seized in Lake, Shasta, Mendocino and
Sonoma counties combined. Last year the State Department of Justice
said that 1.1 million plants were seized in total out of 31
participating counties.

Attorney General's Office spokesperson Robin Schwanke said the
increase is due to several factors: more counties participating in
CAMP's program, more eradication teams, air transport of law
enforcement officers to the illegal plots, and eradication efforts
which include the use of helicopters to identify marijuana plants.
Additionally, Schwanke said, "The average garden size is growing."

California has 20 million acres of national forest, much of it thick
with trees that provide cover and privacy, but five CAMP teams
covering five regions in the state worked for months to protect public
lands from illegal large-scale marijuana growers.

The CAMP program conducted 477 raids in 34 counties between late July
and early October this year. In addition to the plant eradication,
authorities said they made 27 arrests and seized 29 weapons. There
were no officer-involved shootings and no fatalities this year.

In comparison, last year CAMP conducted 237 raids in 31 counties
during the growing season and officers made 42 arrests and seized 76
weapons. There was one officer-involved shooting and one suspect
fatality in Santa Clara County in 2005.

The CAMP program is aimed at large outdoor marijuana farms and 80
percent of the marijuana was found on public land such as parks and
national forests, with the remaining 20 percent found on remote
private land, according to the State Department of Justice.

Headed by the Department of Justice's Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement
(BNE), since the CAMP program began, agents have eradicated more than
6.9 million plants with an estimated street value of $27.6 billion.