VALLEY'S NARCOTIC FIGHTERS HONORED

Local Law Enforcement Officers Will Attend The Ceremony In D.C.

WASHINGTON -- The White House this week is saluting the Central
Valley investigators who busted Merced resident and alleged big-time
marijuana dealer Arnoldo Herrera.

Law enforcement officers called their statewide, several-month
campaign against Herrera "Operation Plumas Smoke." The White House
drug czar's office calls it the outstanding group investigative
effort of 2007, one of several drug-fighting awards being presented
Thursday to the Valley's local, state and federal investigators.

"We did real well," said Bill Ruzzamenti, director of the
Fresno-based Central Valley High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. "We
do well every year."

The HIDTA coordinates anti-drug efforts in a nine-county region from
Sacramento to Bakersfield. In a ceremony Thursday, officers will pick
up four group awards and two individual awards from the White House
Office of National Drug Control Policy.

The White House office provides the nonmonetary awards as a morale
booster for troops involved in the Bush administration's National
Marijuana Initiative. Several dozen Valley law enforcement officers
will attend the ceremony at the Treasury Department, about a block
from the White House.

"They are taking on what some people think are just harmless hippies
up in the hills, but who are really Mexican drug-trafficking
organizations," Scott Burns, deputy director of the Office of
National Drug Control Policy, said Monday. "It's important to reward
and acknowledge their exceptional service."

The six drug-fighting awards going to Central Valley law enforcement
officers are among 40 national awards being presented.

Operation Plumas Smoke kicked off in June.

Supervised by Brent Wood of the California Department of Justice's
Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, investigators located a dozen major
marijuana gardens scattered throughout Santa Clara, Butte, Plumas and
Humboldt counties.

A wiretap on Herrera's phone led investigators to identify other
conspirators, according to a summary of the investigation.

"As each of his gardens was eradicated, Herrera got more and more
distraught," a summary of the operation stated, further alleging that
Herrera eventually became a marijuana broker for other growers.

Over several months of Operation Plumas Smoke, the investigators said
they seized 101,439 mature marijuana plants and 297 pounds of
processed marijuana, along with firearms and $50,000 in cash. In
October, investigators concluded the operation by arresting 14 individuals.

Herrera now sits in Fresno County Jail, awaiting trial on the charges
that could confine him in federal prison for the rest of his life.

Jerry Adams, who set up a Central Valley "marijuana intelligence
fusion center," and intelligence analyst Jill Edwards, who helped
start the center in late 2004, are receiving individual awards.

"She gets hundreds of calls and e-mails from federal or local drug
agents asking her to validate an obscure piece of information that
might be a key link in the jigsaw-puzzle world of investigating [drug
dealers]," an award summary states.

Congress established the HIDTA program in 1988 as a way to target
federal funding and coordinate efforts in specific regions. It
started with five designated areas, including Los Angeles.

The Central Valley HIDTA began in 1999, targeting the methamphetamine
production then proliferating through the rural region. Since then,
it has shifted more attention to large-scale marijuana operations.