Marijuana Worth $26 Million Seized in Idaho

B OISE, Idaho In a mountainous area north of Boise
that is far better known for raising cattle than for growing marijuana,

authorities have seized more than 76,000 marijuana
plants in a series of raids in rugged terrain.

The raids last month by a joint force of federal, state
and local lawenforcement officers came on the eve of the fall marijuana
harvest, and the authorities estimated the crop would have
brought more than $26 million from consumers.

Based on the size of the plants, up to eight feet high, authorities
estimated that some of the plots were four years old. The size of the
operation shocked authorities as well as residents.

"I couldn't believe how they'd done it for so long right
under our noses," said Sheriff Jim Nelson of Washington County, where
most of the plots were situated. "Before, your biggest pot
bust in the county was maybe 10 plants."

In four raids the first on Aug. 5 and the last on
Wednesday authorities arrested 10 people on two felony counts each of
conspiracy to manufacture marijuana and conspiracy to
distribute marijuana. Nine were illegal immigrants and the 10th was an
Idaho resident.

Three other illegal immigrants were indicted by a federal
grand jury on the same charges and are being sought. The maximum
penalty for each count is 10 years in prison.

It appeared to be a single growing operation, said Monte
Stiles, an assistant U.S. attorney in Boise.

Those arrested were living in rustic conditions near the marijuana
plots that they were accused of tending. Officials said the raids had
been based on a tip from a rancher, whose name they did not disclose.

Federal officials said they, too, were surprised by the
size of the outdoor plots, because the Idaho climate is not known as
conducive for growing the plant.

"Idaho historically has not been viewed as a producer of highquality
marijuana," said Walter Johnson, chief of law enforcement for the
Bureau of Land Management. "But this was clearly a commercial
operation."

Most of the plants, about 44,000, were being grown on land
owned by the bureau. The plots were found around three small towns
about 50 miles north of Boise. Eight were at Midvale, six
near Weiser about 15 miles south of Midvale, and two at Ola, about 30
miles east of those two communities.

The number of plants seized pales compared with that discovered in
some big marijuanaproducing states like California, Hawaii, Kentucky
and Tennessee, where authorities seize hundreds of thousands of
plants every year. But it was still an eyeopener for Idaho
residents.

"I can't believe it," said Dee Hicks, a mother of four in Weiser, a
ranching town of 4,500 residents. "It's pretty quiet here. Nobody
expects something like this to happen in Washington County."

Lawenforcement experts say the discovery of outdoor marijuana farms
in Idaho underscores a national trend in which growers are setting up
increasingly sophisticated outdoor and indoor growing operations to
supply millions of pounds of marijuana for American consumption.

Six defendants await trail in Eugene, Ore., on charges
stemming from the seizure of 7,000 marijuana plants being grown indoors.
The plants were discovered inside a hut with
remotecontrol lights, a thermostat and water systems.

"It was more sophisticated than anything we had ever seen
before," said Pat Stenkamp, a federal Drug Enforcement Administration
agent in charge in Eugene.

On Tuesday, Sheriff Nelson of Washington County showed how
the marijuana growers had escaped detection. After a trip up a
hilly dirt road near Weiser in a fourwheeldrive vehicle,
he pointed to a thicket of bushes. "There it is," he said.

Ducking beneath the bushes, he led the way to a marijuana
plot and a green tent full of the growers' clothes, food, stoves,
pornography magazines and laundry detergent.

Spring water trickled downhill on either side of the plot,
where twoinch stumps all that remained of eightfoothigh marijuana
plants stuck out of the ground in rows under the shady
canopy.

"We were pulling plants for two days to haul all of this stuff out of
here," Nelson said. "You can see this stuff if you're on the inside,
but from the outside, you can't see a thing.

"If you look around, there's 20 million draws in the
mountains just like this one," he said. "We're still looking."