SIERRA DRUG RING BUSTED

25 People Are Arrested In Five Valley Towns.

A major narcotics ring believed responsible for about 80% of the marijuana
gardens found growing in the Sierra has been broken up, authorities
reported Saturday.

"We finally caught them," Fresno County Sheriff Richard Pierce said during
a news conference where the arrests of more than two dozen people were
disclosed. The ring is believed to have overseen gardens from Tulare to
Butte counties.

About 200 officers took part in the arrests, which began about midnight
Friday with a "buy-bust" operation and culminated at dawn Saturday, Pierce
said. That's when about 18 homes in five Central Valley communities from
Hanford to Merced were raided.

"The investigation is continuing, and more arrests are pending," said Lt.
Robert Hagler, head of the Fresno County Sheriff's Department's narcotics
enforcement unit.

The investigation, nicknamed Emerald Mountain, started about four years
ago. Pierce said officers eventually focused on members of the Magana
family as suspects in a large and well-organized operation that allegedly
recruited undocumented workers to plant, tend and harvest marijuana
gardens. Workers were provided with food, shelter and guns, including
assault weapons, and lived in the marijuana gardens from April to October.

A statement from the U.S. Department of Justice said operation leaders
hired more than 50 workers a year to tend the gardens. Methamphetamine
sales helped finance the marijuana-growing operation.

Hagler said the alleged ring is believed responsible for many of the
"thousands and thousands" of marijuana plants that have been seized and
destroyed during eradication operations.

The first of the 25 arrests came about midnight Friday when undercover
narcotics officers negotiated a deal to buy 100 pounds of marijuana for
$3,000 a pound, Pierce said.

Officers and several suspects met at a parking lot at Kings Canyon Road and
Chestnut Avenue in southeast Fresno. That meeting, Hagler said, led
officers to a Sanger home where 100 plastic bags, each containing one pound
of marijuana, were seized and three suspects arrested.

At dawn Saturday, 200 officers armed with search warrants fanned out to
various locations, including homes in Merced, Madera, Sanger, Reedley and
Fresno.

One pound of marijuana was seized at the Merced home; 15 pounds of
marijuana, 15 pounds of methamphetamine and an assault rifle were seized at
one Madera home; 200 pounds of marijuana were seized at another Madera
home; and 20 pounds of marijuana were seized at a Reedley home. In Madera
County, Hagler said, marijuana was found buried in ice chests in a vineyard.

Among suspects in custody Saturday were Jesus Magana Figueroa of Fresno,
31, and his cousin, Juan Antonio Magana Valencia, 26, of Fresno.
Investigators described them as "high up" in the alleged drug ring.

Others in custody Saturday were Pedro Barragan Licea, 35, of Fresno; J.
Felix Figueroa Valencia, 40, of Sanger; Jesus Diaz Arredondo, 41, Juan
Gonzalez, 34, and Jose Maria Alvarez, 33, all of Madera; Javier Moreno
Mendoza, 21, of Fresno; Salvador Salcedo Zaragoza, 33, of Santa Rosa; and
David Figueroa Hernandez, about 35, of Sanger.

Investigators Saturday were trying to determine the true identities of
other suspects. They all face federal charges of conspiring to cultivate
marijuana and distributing marijuana and methamphetamine.

The investigation is being conducted by the Organized Crime Drug
Enforcement Task Force, represented by the Fresno County Sheriff's
Department, Fresno Police Department, Madera County Sheriff's Department,
Madera Narcotic Enforcement Team, Tulare County Sheriff's Department, the
state's Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, U.S. Forest Service, and U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration.

Assisting agencies include the Kings County Drug Task Force,
Merced-Mariposa Narcotic Task Force, Kern County Sheriff's Department and
the recently organized Fresno Methamphetamine High Intensity Drug
Trafficking Area Task Force.

The reporter can be reached at lgalvan@fresnobee.com or 441-6139.