LAW ENFORCEMENT INCREASES FIGHT AGAINST POT GROWING IN SIERRA FOOTHILLS

By some estimates, marijuana has been grown illegally on a large
scale in the Sierra foothills for 15 or 20 years.

On remote hillsides and hard-to-reach valleys, growers often poor
Mexican immigrants, legal and illegal ' living in harsh conditions
create and tend to makeshift farms. There they grow illegal marijuana
with Mexican drug lords footing the bills and raking in millions of
dollars in profits.

Law enforcement agencies local, state and federal have stepped up
efforts go after these growing operations.

But at the same time growers are planting more parcels and using a
new variety of marijuana they can harvest more than once a year, said
Tulare County sheriff's Lt. Mike Boudreaux.

They're also becoming more aggressive in guarding their marijuana
fields as the drug's street value has increased, he said.

"We are seeing there is more violent activity statewide," Boudreaux
said. Last year, when Tulare County deputies raided a 15,000-plant
site in Sequoia National Forest, a man believed to be a grower raised
a gun, and a deputy fired at him.

He wasn't hit but was arrested, Boudreaux said.

There are increasing reports of marijuana sites being guarded by men
with automatic weapons. Boudreaux said that in the Tulare County
foothills, law enforcement officers have uncovered booby traps with
tripwires that would fire guns at whoever might activate the traps.

Last year, more than 527,000 marijuana plants were confiscated in the
Tulare County foothills many on public lands '>a significant jump
from 325,000 in 2007 and 167,000 in 2006.

Law enforcement officers believe part of that increase stems from
better eradication efforts and part from Mexican drug cartels
increasing their illegal operations in the foothills.

But Boudreaux says that for every marijuana site law enforcement
agencies take out, they probably miss one or two.

"Well, what's happened is the amount of money that can be made from
the products supersedes methamphetamine, cocaine and heroine
combined," Boudreaux said. "For one, it's easier to produce. You have
more of a consumer base."

As the United States makes it harder to get drugs across the border,
cartels find it easier to produce marijuana here, Boudreaux said.

That's not to say that marijuana isn't smuggled north across the border.

In 2007, an estimated 15,500 metric tons of marijuana were produced
in Mexico, primarily for export to the United States, according to
the National Drug Threat Assessment.

Six to eight years ago, 600 to 800 plants constituted a large
marijuana site locally, Boudreaux said. "Now they average 3,000 to
7,000, and one last year had 85,000." That was in the Yokohl Valley
above Exeter.

And with each plant able to produce between $4,000 and $6,000 worth
of marijuana, drug traffickers have considerable incentive to hide
and protect their crops from law enforcement agencies and from each
other. Additional complications

Law enforcement agencies worry that hunters or hikers might
accidentally walk into an illegal pot farm and end up hurt or killed
by guards or booby traps.

Adding to the problem is that these operations in recent years have
started growing a new variety of marijuana that is smaller than the
old variety making it harder to spot ' yet producing as much usable
pot as larger plant varieties, Boudreaux said.

It's also more potent than the other variety, he said.

In fact, the U.S. Department of Justice's National Drug Intelligence
Center reports that levels of THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol) the
chemical that generates the high in marijuana increased, on average,
from 8.77 percent in 2006 to 9.64 percent in 2007 in pot seized by
authorities in the United States, Mexico and Canada.

Another reason growers have switched to the new, as-yet-unnamed
variety of pot is it grows more quickly, so it can be harvested two
or three times a year instead of once, Boudreaux said.

"They're calling it the three-month variety," he said.

Boudreaux said the new variety is heartier, able to handle higher
altitudes and extends the growing season through November instead of
late September.