HIGH COST OF BRIBES FORCES MEXICAN POT GROWERS ACROSS BORDER

BOISE -- In Mexico, the price of growing marijuana is known as ``el
mordido'' -- ``the bite.'' The term refers to bribes that growers must
pay local police to stay in business.

In prosecuting the largest marijuana case in Idaho's history, Assistant
U.S. Attorney Kim Lindquist said escalating bribe fees in Mexico inspired
growers to cross the border and set up growing areas in Idaho. The growers,
nearly all undocumented immigrants from Florencia, Mexico, confessed that
they moved their operations into Idaho to avoid paying the $1,000 per 100
plants Mexican authorities demand, Lindquist said.

More than a dozen well-hidden pot groves in southwestern Idaho went
undetected for at least three years before authorities were tipped off and
seized 114,000 plants in August and September. ``They started to feel it in
their pocketbook, so they moved their operations to Idaho, where the only
risk was getting caught,'' Lindquist said.

``It's a good example of how we're affected by the narcotics trade below
the border.'' Lindquist recently saw the sentencing of all but one of 14
defendants who were tried and convicted in federal court in connection with
growing the marijuana plants, worth an estimated $26 million on the
streets. Salvador Valdez, 21, who was convicted in April of cultivating
marijuana, will be sentenced Monday.

The defendants received sentences ranging from 10 to 21 years in federal
prison and were fined $1,000. The only legal Idaho resident, Roberto
Sandoval, 42, of Caldwell, fled after being indicted and is still at large,
the attorney said. Another defendant was transported to Amarillo, Texas, to
face drug-trafficking charges.

Lindquist said he is certain other Mexican growers were involved in raising
pot plants in Idaho, but they escaped before law-enforcement authorities
raided the groves last summer. Fearful that ``snitching'' on those who fled
might endanger their families in Mexico, 11 of the defendants pleaded
innocent to federal crimes and refused to cooperate with authorities,
Lindquist said.

That forced the U.S. Attorney's Office to prosecute each defendant one at a
time. All of the cases, except for one, resulted in convictions. Two other
defendants who pleaded guilty to state crimes will likely serve one year in
jail before being deported to Mexico, said Doug Perry, Gem County
prosecutor.

The growers confessed that they selected the remote foothills in
southwestern Idaho where the terrain resembled a similar setting in
Florencia, Lindquist said. The otherwise dry foothills have tiny seeps and
creeks that flow under thick brush, which provide excellent camouflage.
Growers testified that they made about $1,000 a week.

Copyright 1998, The Salt Lake Tribune