POT FARM LARGER THAN THOUGHT

Drug-enforcement agents said Thursday that an illegal backcountry marijuana
garden they raided earlier this week contained more plants than originally
estimated.

The illicit patch in Los Padres National Forest near Paradise Road was at
first thought to hold between 5,000 and 7,000 plants. But as efforts to cut
and remove the crop for destruction continued Thursday, that estimate
increased to 10,000, said Kathy Good, spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service.

In addition, 398 plants were discovered in five smaller gardens in the same
vicinity. Authorities believe they were being tended by other suspects.

The removal operation is expected to continue today, she said.

Because authorities said the approximate street value of each of the plants
from the main garden is about $3,000, the estimated value of the pot seized
increased from at least $15 million to at least $30 million.

The raid at the main garden started late Tuesday. Two men suspected of
growing the crop and living at the garden, along Bear Creek about
one-quarter mile from Highway 154, fled. The suspects had not been caught by
late Thursday.

The garden the pair allegedly tended was described by officials as the
largest found in Santa Barbara County since 1989, when anti-drug agents
raided a 13,000-plant marijuana farm near Cuyama.