LAW ENFORCEMENT TO BEGIN WEEDING OUT DOPE FARMERS

Hollister - With marijuana harvest season only three months away,
local law enforcement officials are preparing for a busy summer
eradicating the cultivation operations in the rural areas of San Benito County.

"There is going to be many opportunities to take advantage of the wet
weather," San Benito County Sheriff Curtis Hill said. "We're going to
be busy this year."

For nearly a decade, dope farmers have taken up stakes in San Benito
County. In 1999, law enforcement officials eradicated nearly 900,000
plants, Hill said. During that year, more marijuana was grown in San
Benito County than any of the other 57 counties in California.
However, that number has decreased significantly. In 2004, Unified
Narcotics Enforcement Team agents seized and destroyed about 17,000
plants. Last year, agents confiscated 51,000 plants.

Before raiding a garden and destroying plants, officials have to
secure financing and find the growing operations, Hill said. Earlier
this month, Hill signed an agreement with the Campaign Against
Marijuana Planting, a multi-agency state task force. CAMP will
provide both money and manpower to aid in local eradication efforts.
Federal programs also kicked in about $12,000 to pay for overtime to
quash marijuana growing operations, Hill said.

The Sheriff's department will work closely with UNET during the
summer months to collect information on the growing operations and
search for the gardens commonly found in rural south San Benito
County. Searches are conducted by car and by helicopter patrols.

Hill's philosophy on marijuana eradication hasn't changed in nearly a decade.

"We look, we watch and then we try to take them down with people in
the garden," he said. "Making arrests are key because they can open
up new leads."

Most of the gardens are operated by the Mexican drug cartels.
Arresting low-level gardeners can lead to other growing operations,
but nabbing top cartel officials is a challenge, Hill said.

"Very rarely do we get the people who are actually responsible," he
said. "But we are getting the weed out of our county."

The gardens are usually found in rural, nearly inaccessible areas and
growers often go to great lengths to camouflage their operations.
Marijuana continues to be a lucrative business in San Benito County.
One plant can yield $4,000 worth of marijuana on the street.

"This has nothing to do with sick people or compassionate use," Hill
said. "This is about greed."

The profit margins are prodigious in the illegal marijuana trade,
especially in South San Benito County, said Sgt. Mike Rodrigues.

"The plants found in South county are typically high-grade
sinsemilla," he said. "A single plant can sell for up to $6,000."

Sinsemilla marijuana, procured from unpollinated female plants, is
seedless and highly potent. It fetches higher market prices than
other strains of marijuana because of its potency.

The marijuana grown in rural South county usually makes its way to
Hollister, said Police Chief Jeff Miller.

"The more we eradicate, the less it appears on the streets," he said.
"We have a tremendous drug problem in this city and marijuana is the gateway."

Breaking the drug supply chain is central to crime prevention, Miller said.

"Drugs are a problem and there is a nexus between drugs and gangs,"
he said. "You can't stop one without the other."

Miller said the problem is exacerbated by federal funding cuts.
Federal grants for UNET and other anti-drug programs have decreased
significantly, he said. The city's Justice Assistance Grant has
fallen from $40,000 in 2003 to $11,000 in 2006.

"We're seeing less and less federal money," he said. "We're feeling
the effects of that. You're talking about an almost 75 percent reduction."

The cuts forced Miller to pull one of his officers from UNET, leaving
the program with only four full-time agents.