News (Media Awareness Project) - US CA: Madera Cultivates Millions In Pot Haul |
| Title: | US CA: Madera Cultivates Millions In Pot Haul |
| Published On: | 2000-09-21 |
| Source: | Fresno Bee, The (CA) |
| Fetched On: | 2008-09-03 08:06:42 |
MADERA CULTIVATES MILLIONS IN POT HAUL
8,000-plus plants worth $35 million are ripped out near Oakhurst.
MADERA -- Madera County law enforcement authorities seized $35 million
worth of marijuana plants this week, continuing a summerlong push against
pot farms in the county's mountainous areas.
Sheriff John P. Anderson said Wednesday that deputies and the county's
Narcotics Enforcement Team raided marijuana gardens Monday in the Oakhurst
area.
The plants were seized just off Sky Ranch Road and in the Texas Flat area
near Fresno Dome.
More than 8,000 plants up to 10 feet tall were ripped out and destroyed,
sheriff's spokeswoman Rita Valdivia said.
Tuesday, the team reported finding and destroying 6,500 more of the illegal
plants east of North Fork in the Pekinpah area.
"There's some big gardens and some big plants," Anderson said.
Using federal figures for estimating the street value of marijuana plants,
an estimated $125 million worth of the illegal hemp has been seized and
destroyed this summer in Madera County.
The volume of those plants has convinced Anderson that the gardens in the
Sierra are commercial operations.
"You don't have 7,000 plants just for local consumption or personal
consumption," he said. "These people are criminals."
Most of the Madera County marijuana farms have been on public land, so the
deputies and narcotics team didn't need search warrants, Anderson said.
Of the seven people arrested as suspected pot farmers this summer, all but
two were Mexican nationals, Anderson said.
A man fatally shot in a raid above Ahwahnee when deputies said he aimed a
gun at them has been identified as being from Mexico.
"The guy that they arrested last week, he didn't even know where he was,"
Anderson said. "Someone took him up there and dumped him. He asked me what
county we were in."
A suspect identified as Augustine Maldonado Sanchez, 56, of Mexico, was
arrested without incident at one of the marijuana gardens raided this week,
Valdivia said.
Anderson said the raids have followed a series of aerial sweeps of the
mountain area.
The sweeps located several suspicious gardens of what appeared to be
cultivated marijuana plants.
8,000-plus plants worth $35 million are ripped out near Oakhurst.
MADERA -- Madera County law enforcement authorities seized $35 million
worth of marijuana plants this week, continuing a summerlong push against
pot farms in the county's mountainous areas.
Sheriff John P. Anderson said Wednesday that deputies and the county's
Narcotics Enforcement Team raided marijuana gardens Monday in the Oakhurst
area.
The plants were seized just off Sky Ranch Road and in the Texas Flat area
near Fresno Dome.
More than 8,000 plants up to 10 feet tall were ripped out and destroyed,
sheriff's spokeswoman Rita Valdivia said.
Tuesday, the team reported finding and destroying 6,500 more of the illegal
plants east of North Fork in the Pekinpah area.
"There's some big gardens and some big plants," Anderson said.
Using federal figures for estimating the street value of marijuana plants,
an estimated $125 million worth of the illegal hemp has been seized and
destroyed this summer in Madera County.
The volume of those plants has convinced Anderson that the gardens in the
Sierra are commercial operations.
"You don't have 7,000 plants just for local consumption or personal
consumption," he said. "These people are criminals."
Most of the Madera County marijuana farms have been on public land, so the
deputies and narcotics team didn't need search warrants, Anderson said.
Of the seven people arrested as suspected pot farmers this summer, all but
two were Mexican nationals, Anderson said.
A man fatally shot in a raid above Ahwahnee when deputies said he aimed a
gun at them has been identified as being from Mexico.
"The guy that they arrested last week, he didn't even know where he was,"
Anderson said. "Someone took him up there and dumped him. He asked me what
county we were in."
A suspect identified as Augustine Maldonado Sanchez, 56, of Mexico, was
arrested without incident at one of the marijuana gardens raided this week,
Valdivia said.
Anderson said the raids have followed a series of aerial sweeps of the
mountain area.
The sweeps located several suspicious gardens of what appeared to be
cultivated marijuana plants.
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