DEPUTIES RETURN TO A FAMILIAR PLACE

5,000 Plants Found Near Site Of Larger Haul Last Year

Sheriff's deputies uncovered more than 5,000 marijuana plants and arrested
two suspects in the hills above Los Osos Tuesday morning.

Francisco Garcia, 44, of Santa Maria, and Octavio Mendoza, 52, of Mexico,
were booked at County Jail on charges of marijuana cultivation.

A sheriff's investigator stands Tuesday among marijuana plants near Clark
Valley Road in Los Osos. Mendoza, who reportedly drew a 9 mm pistol when
deputies made contact with him, was booked on an additional charge of
assault with a deadly weapon.

Deputies discovered the crops on private land in a remote area above Clark
Valley Road just a few hundred yards east of the site where 7,000 plants
were found in July 1999. No arrests were made in last year's bust.

Sheriff Patrick Hedges said there is currently no indication that the two
crops are related, but said they will investigate possible connections.

The plants found Tuesday were located in several spots along and below a
quarter-mile ridge that is dense with oak trees, poison oak and scrub brush.

"It's semi-remote and fairly decent weather," Hedges said of the site's
suitability for marijuana crops. He added that there is a good potential
for water there, as evidenced by the drip-irrigation system.

The property owner is not a suspect in the growing operation.

Hedges said that this time of year usually yields a pot bust for the
Sheriff's office.

"The way the cultivation process works is" the seeds are planted in the
late spring, Hedges said, and "this is the time of year that plants are
starting to mature."

He said the street value of each crop is estimated by some at $3,000.

Hedges said the latest crop was found through a Sheriff's office investigation.

"We've been doing them periodically throughout the county," he said.

Hedges would not specify how these crops were found, but said they
typically gather information through airplane flyovers and called-in tips.
They also check areas where plants have been found before.

Deputies will cut and bail the 5,000-plus plants from the site and burn
them in a bonfire.

Mendoza and Garcia are being held at County Jail on $50,000 bail each.