CANYON'S DRUG RAIDS TROUBLE RESIDENTS

Tranquillity Of Lytle Creek Communities Draws Its Citizens, But Remoteness
Attracts Drug Producers.

LYTLE CREEK -- Just north of Mt. Baldy, a blue creek splits the San
Bernardino Mountains and divides residents into little enclaves.

This creek was once the site of a short-lived gold frenzy in the late 19th
century, according to local lore. The craggy canyon is known for its
beautiful hiking territory.

Lately, however, the place has been in the news for a different reason: a
series of marijuana plots have been discovered and hacked apart by law
enforcement agencies.

They suspect that a Mexican mafia-backed drug cartel has been growing
marijuana beneath the thick vegetation along Lytle Creek.

It's embarrassing to residents, many of whom have lived here for
generations.

They don't like it when people come to the canyon and dump unwanted pets
onto their roads or cover public buildings with gang symbols. They also
don't like the idea of marijuana being harvested in their area, but some
sigh in resignation about it.

"There's a lot of water there, and not a lot of people go up there," said
Melody Wold, owner of Scotland Store and Melody's Place, a conjoined general
store and restaurant in the hamlet known as Scotland.

This sparsely populated area is thick with vegetation, and property lines
often are blurry. The remoteness of the Lytle Creek communities of Scotland,
Happy Jack, Upper Tally and Lower Tally makes it easier for people to get
away with lawlessness in the surrounding forested areas.

"My father has 174-and-a-quarter acres," said resident Marla Cochran.
"People plant stuff on his property all the time."

Not long ago, this place had the nickname "crystal canyon" or "Lytle Tweak"
because of all the methamphetamine production that was going on there,
residents said.

Today it's marijuana. Law enforcement agencies conducted three raids in
September, seizing an estimated total of 20,000 plants, with a street value
of at least $20 million, according to San Bernardino County Sheriff's
Department data.

The raids, which took place Sept. 12, Sept. 19 and Oct. 3, involved the San
Bernardino and Riverside county sheriff's departments, the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Forest Service.

In each instance, helicopter crews would scout the area and a raid would be
planned for the next day. Agents and deputies hit the San Sevine area early
and followed with the Oct. 3 raid, but made no arrests.

Workers in the fields scattered as soon as they heard the helicopters,
deputies said. They suspect a drug cartel with ties to the Mexican mafia,
but would not say why. One thing is certain: Whoever planned this operation
had the resources to tend to thousands of plants.

The real reason growers try to get away with the crime in areas like Lytle
Creek is that the national market is so lucrative, San Bernardino County
Sheriff's Department Det. Mike Wirz said after one of the Lytle Creek busts.

Growers know that drug task force searches aren't cheap operations; they
depend upon helicopters and multi-agency cooperation.

"It's very hot, very remote, and we need a lot of manpower to get the weed
out," Wirz said.

People in Scotland often see choppers buzzing around the mountain,
especially during the marijuana harvest season in late summer, but that's
just a part of life up here.

There are signs of hope that people can overcome the negative stereotypes
that there's more to this community than drugs.

Lynn Seward, 45, is a dog groomer who said she's rescued 73 abandoned pets
since coming here six years ago.

She vividly described the beauty of the nighttime skies, as seen from her
rented house in Lower Tally, called Tally-sub by the locals, and said she'd
love to buy a house here soon.

"I grew up in L.A., and that's kind of rowdy," she said. "When we visited
here, it felt like a campground, like we were at home."