CALIFORNIA'S NEW POT PATCH

Los Angeles County Blossoms As A Rival to North's Renowned 'Emerald Triangle'

Northern California's so-called Emerald Triangle, famous for marijuana
farms that supply much of the U.S. with high-quality pot, is facing
competition from hundreds of miles away-in Los Angeles County.

As this year's marijuana-harvest season gets under way,
law-enforcement officials are focused on the Southern California
county, which by some measures has bloomed into the nation's most
productive pot garden.

Law-enforcement agents seized more than 734,000 pot plants in Los
Angeles County last year-the highest number of seizures in the country
for that year. The haul surpassed those even in California's
most-prolific northern counties, with the biggest 2009 seizure coming
from Shasta County at 629,000 plants.

Northern California as a whole still grows most of the nation's pot,
according to law-enforcement officials. But the drastic spike in Los
Angeles County pot-plant seizures has law-enforcement officials trying
to figure out what is behind the increase, and whether it represents a
real shift in the lucrative pot trade.

"Is it that there are more grows out there, or are we getting better
at finding them?" said Federal Drug Enforcement Administration
spokeswoman Sarah Pullen of the pot-growing camps being set up in
Southern California. "Was last year an anomaly, or is there something
different going on in the state?"

Ms. Pullen said it is still too early in this season to tell. And
law-enforcement officials say that pot-plant seizures throughout the
country are on the rise-with California, as it has in the past,
leading the way.

Law-enforcement officials have seized 103,000 plants in Los Angeles
County since April, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's
Department, which takes the lead in pot seizures in the county.

Recent seizures in Los Angeles County have astonished even veterans of
the state's long drug war. On a single Friday in late June,
law-enforcement agents destroyed 19,000 plants with a street value of
$39 million, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department officials said.

Most of the county's marijuana plants are grown in the Angeles
National Forest, a rugged wilderness stretching over 650,000 acres
east of Los Angeles, according to U.S. Forest Service records. Forest
Service and Sheriff's Department officials recently warned hikers
about the presence of pot farms in the forest-along with the armed
guards and booby traps that come with them.

Not even last year's Station Fire-the forest's largest inferno ever
recorded-slowed harvesting. "We thought the fire would really curtail
this and it didn't," said Ralph Ornelas, captain of the Los Angeles
County Sheriff's narcotics bureau. "We came up with seizures at the
end of the season that really surprised us. It's amazing. This tells
you the abundance of outdoor grows that are here."

Some in law enforcement believe that tightened security along the
Mexican border has curtailed drug smuggling and forced growers to
cultivate their pot closer to their U.S. market.

Another possible reason: Angeles National Forest has become attractive
to Mexican drug cartels because it offers remote open space, a perfect
growing climate, little competition and a base close to home.

Law enforcement is working to get a better handle on the ownership of
the Southern California crops. There is some recent evidence that
Mexican cartels are running some of the U.S. farms, according to
officials, but a lot of the plantations are operated by American
gangs, some with ties to the cartels.

Much of the recent violence in Mexico is among cartels battling for
planting territory, said Michelle Gregory, a special agent with the
California Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement. "They realized they can
come to California and have a lot of open space, and they don't have
to fight with anybody for it," she said.

While most of California's pot is exported to other states, the black
market here could change drastically if residents vote in favor of a
November state ballot measure to legalize marijuana. The measure would
allow residents to cultivate and posses small amounts of pot. A recent
analysis by The Rand Corporation think tank said the price of pot
could drop to as low as $38 an ounce, compared to $375 per ounce
today, if it passes.

Meanwhile, drug agents continue to hunt for pot plantations. The work
involves hours of hiking to remote sites in the forest. When agents
spot a growing area, they often find full camp sites, complete with
irrigation and acres of marijuana fields and armed guards.

Most of the time, the guards flee, and agents destroy the plants. But
a disturbing trend has emerged this year: "We're finding they're more
apt to stick around and defend, than take off and run," Ms. Gregory
said.