KERN TOPS LIST FOR MARIJUANA CROPS

Kern County topped the list of counties with large-scale marijuana gardens
seized this summer, according to the state attorney general.

More than 59,000 marijuana plants, worth an estimated $230 million, were
found among the forests of Kern County by the Campaign Against Marijuana
Planting. The agency is a state and federal task force led by the California
Department of Justice Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement.

Using values from the 1999 Kern County Crop Report, the value of the
confiscated gardens would make marijuana Kern County's third top crop,
behind grapes and cotton.

Those 59,000 plants mark the largest seizure in the program's 18-year
history, according to Michael Van Winkle, information officer for the office
of the attorney general.

Between late July and mid-October CAMP confiscated 345,207 plants in the
state. That's more than 100,000 more plants than were seized in 1999.

San Joaquin Valley counties made up four of the top seven counties for CAMP
marijuana seizures. This is a change from past years, when CAMP focused on
Northern California.

"Usually CAMP teams are stationed in Humboldt and Mendocino counties where
they get 200-plant gardens," Van Winkle said.

A team dedicated to the valley turned up several thousand plants at a time
in the National Forests of Kern and Tulare counties.

Law enforcement officials say they are looking at a different type of
organization in the valley. Many of the marijuana gardens are the work of
large drug organizations based in Mexico, Van Winkle said.

Officials believe drug organizations may have begun in large-scale
methamphetamine production over 10 years ago and brought their corporate
approach to marijuana about seven years ago. More than 60 percent of the
CAMP busts were on public land, providing employees easy access to isolated
areas to plant and maintain the gardens, Van Winkle said. CAMP arrested 16
suspects and seized 24 weapons in the busts. The 11-week campaign cost
$730,000 in state and federal money.