POT GROWER ORDERED TO PAY FOR ENVIROMENTAL DAMAGE

A Mexican national arrested last August when federal and state agents
shut down a large marijuana growing operation in the Okanogan and
Wenatchee national forests was sentenced to 75 months in prison and
ordered to pay restitution of more than $7,300 for environmental
damage it caused.

Moyses Mesa-Barajas, 43, was arrested when a combined drug enforcement
operation raided camps in the forests where 10,231 marijuana plants
were seized. The camp sites were connected with a network of trains
and the pot gardens were tended by people in camouflage clothing.

To create the pot farms, the growers terraced the mountainsides and
rerouted streams. The sites also had a variety of fertilizers,
pesticides and rat poison, as well as garbage and human waste.

Some of the marijuana tenders escaped but Mesa-Barajas was captured.
In May he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to manufacture more than 1,000
mariuana plants and destruction of government property.

It took a cooperative effort to detect and dismantle such a large
growing operation on federal land, said U.S. Attorney Jim McDevitt.
Agencies involved included the U.S. Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife
Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Border Patrol, the
Washington National Guard, Washington State Patrol, the North Central
Washington Narcotics Task Force, the Okanogan County Sheriff's Office,
the Twisp Police Department, the Winthrop Marshal's Office and the
North Central Washington Special Response Team.

The grow operations cause significant environmental damage to public
lands and pose a risk to people using the forests for recreation,
McDevitt added. The U.S. Forest Service spent nearly $13,000 to clean
up the area.