INTER-AGENCY MARIJUANA RAID NETS 15,113 PLANTS

Another in a series of multiagency marijuana raids in Madera County
late last week brought this year's plant eradication up to 116,802, an
unprecedented season total for the county.

By comparison, last year's total was 54,683.

Sheriff John Anderson, a prominent voice against marijuana growth in
the area, continues to call upon the local community. Anderson said
the tips his office has received have helped drug enforcers to clear
the area.

He adamantly cautions the community to be on the lookout for tale-tell
signs, such as isolated campsites and drip-line irrigation, as well as
to steer clear of such areas because most growers are armed.

As the season reaches is peak for harvesting and processing, the
sheriff cautions that the area is at its most dangerous.

Last week's raid spanned grow sites peppered around North Fork,
including Fish Creek, Slide Creek, Douglas Station (near Peckinpah
Ridge) and Central Camp.

At Peckinpah, six plots were scattered among dense forest and this
most recent raid marked the third eradication in the same area this
season as brazen growers return and replant.

Agents from the U.S. Forest Service, The Department of Fish and Game,
the Sheriff's Department, Madera Regional SWAT team and the Madera
County Narcotic Enforcement Team joined the Campaign Against Marijuana
Planting (CAMP)-led force as part of the ongoing "Operation Fatigue"
effort to tirelessly drive growers from the area.

Agents, forming two teams, were lowered by helicopter or hiked into
areas of dense forest to gardens where 15,113 plants were cut down
with machetes and other hand tools and hauled off in bundles by helicopter.

Anderson was among agents who took part in short tactical airborne
operations where agents are flown to remote sites harnessed at the end
of a rope from a helicopter.

For agents, the eradication is an exhausting and dangerous job in
sweltering heat.

The gardens, with plants growing from 5 to 9 feet tall on thick
stalks, attract mosquitoes and rattlesnakes because of the moisture
from the drip irrigation system rigged by the growers.

"It's exhausting," said Fish and Game Warden Tony Spada of the raids.
"You should see these guys collapse at the end of the day."

The demanding physical toll has dropped agents to the ground. Hiking
into gardens, sometimes several hours and several miles, in the peak
of season's hot weather means heat exhaustion is among the agents'
enemies.

When agents took a break for pizza Friday, the toll of the job was
visible on the their sweat-stained and red faces.

The heavy reliance on helicopter hauls from remote locations also
makes the effort slow and expensive at $500 per hour operating cost
for the helicopters alone.

And it also means only a small percentage of gardens are eradicated.
"We only find 40 percent of what is out here and the growers count on
that," said Kevin Mayer drug agent for the Sierra National Forest
Service. "It's the BB-gun approach. Scatter everywhere and we can't
get to all of them."

According to Mayer, the number of gardens is increasing at such a
rapid rate that an estimated 1,000 square acres are essentially
bulldozed in California per year.

"Every year it gets worse," he said, frustrated. He has also seen an
increase in new variations of the plant that grow at higher
elevations. "I get sick of it. I don't mind when the winter comes"
(which marks the end of the season).

Despite the exhaustion, teams of committed agents continue to deal a
heavy blow to growers with estimated $45 million worth of marijuana
eradicated in just two days last week.