POT RAIDS WEED OUT HIDDEN GARDENS

Mexican Drug Cartels Blamed

First Of Two Parts

Monterey County drug investigators say they're set to surpass last year's
totals in seek-and-destroy missions on marijuana gardens, an increasing
number of which are run by Mexican drug cartels.

The Sheriff's Office's Narcotics Division has gotten a head start on this
year's marijuana crop: Last year's raids brought in 13,500 plants, but the
deputies already have destroyed almost 12,000 this year in seven raids,
with nearly two months to go in the harvest season. Next week, there are
three raids planned, with an estimated total of 6,000 plants.

"I suspect we're probably going to top last year's numbers without any
difficulty," said investigative Sgt. Doug Dahmen, who directs the Narcotics
Division.

The gardens cause environmental damage to the forests, and their armed
guards pose dangers to innocent hikers.

Dahmen said these raids are far more effective in curtailing drug use than
stopping people with small quantities on the street.

"If you can get it at the source, you're disrupting the trade with
substantially more success than if you get it at

the street level," he said. "It has a much larger ripple effect."

In the latest raid in Monterey County, the sheriff's narcotics unit
Thursday collected 1,915 pot plants near Gorda with an estimated street
value of $6.7 million.

On Aug. 18, local law enforcement officials performed their most productive
eradication operations yet this year, destroying almost 7,500 plants worth
about $37.5 million at two gardens west of the Arroyo Seco Campgrounds near
Greenfield.

The farms raided Aug. 18 had the tell-tale signs of Mexican drug cartels,
Dahmen said, including large crop sizes and evidence of armed guards
prepared to stay for the entire season. The lookouts had left behind both
bullet casings and supplies, he said.

"They've got huge resources," Dahmen said of cartels. "They're in it to
make money - big-time money."

Added sophistication

Mexican cartels grow larger crops than local growers, typically using
undocumented workers to guard and tend them, he said.

"What we've seen throughout the state is that these people will insert
Mexican nationals into the growth areas to cultivate this marijuana,"
Dahmen said.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration also is dealing with a swell in
cartel-run marijuana plots in Northern California, said Casey McEnry,
public information officer for the DEA in San Francisco.

"We are seeing an increase in Mexican criminal organizations beginning to
take shape and form and beginning to run these marijuana groves," McEnry said.

The DEA identifies the cartels by the nationality of arrested workers and
by the way the crops are cultivated, she said.

In Monterey County, where the Sheriff's Office eradicates about 20
marijuana gardens each year, more and more are cultivated in the highly
organized way characteristic of the Mexican groups.

Dahmen said he suspects cartels grow marijuana in the United States to
avoid interception at the border, which is more likely as homeland security
measures increase.

The sergeant described a sophisticated system of back-country harvesting
hidden in remote locations: Armed workers camp at the sites for the summer,
receiving packages of food at predetermined locations under the cover of
darkness and crawling between the plants to stay invisible. They can be
paid from $5,000 to $15,000 for a season, he said.

"They are well-financed and often armed, and they basically are in there
for the duration," Dahmen said.

At $5,000 per plant, a cartel can make millions by using laborers to grow
the drug.

"If they can spend $15,000 for five people and have a crop the size of
(Thursday's), $37.5 million, there's a substantial profit margin," Dahmen said.

Even if the growers lose half of their crop, they still make a significant
profit, he said.

The workers carve out niches in the hillsides for planting and start the
stalks from seed, fending off wild animals and using illegal pesticides on
the crops.

When the plants are mature, they remove the harvest by hiking out on
trails, using pack mules or bringing in helicopters, depending on how much
funding they have available, Dahmen said.

Well armed, financed

The gardens can pose a danger to passersby, with guards armed with weapons
ranging from handguns to AK-47s.

"Usually what we see with these organizations is that those that are
tending to the plants are armed and very dangerous," McEnry said.

The guards typically leave the groves when they hear law enforcement
approaching, but a recent confrontation in Santa Clara County has led
deputies to exercise extra caution.

During an Aug. 5 raid on a 50,000-plant garden in the open space reserve
surrounding Mount Umunhum, a 25-year-old warden for the California
Department of Fish and Game was shot by a single bullet that traveled
through both of his legs, and a suspect was killed.

In Monterey County, marijuana seizures have increased since 1992, when
federal funding enabled the creation of the County of Monterey Marijuana
Eradication Team, now supervised by Dahmen, to address the problem
year-round. The outdoor growing season runs from April to September or
October, depending on weather, but crops cultivated indoors can grow
through the winter.

For the Aug. 18 raids, COMMET teamed up with the U.S. Forest Service, the
California State Department of Justice's Campaign Against Marijuana
Planting, sheriff's narcotics detectives and the National Guard, seizing
the plants and flying them out by helicopter. A full-size dump truck took
them to an undisclosed site, where they were destroyed.

A statewide problem

Marijuana gardens are a problem statewide, with toxic pesticides polluting
the land and armed guards posing a danger to unsuspecting hikers. CAMP has
seized more than 4 million plants - valued at more than $16 billion - in
its 22-year history.

In 2004, CAMP conducted raids in 30 of the state's 58 counties, assisting
local law enforcement with equipment and personnel, said Robin Schwanke,
spokeswoman for the California DOJ.

"The illegal gardens seized by CAMP are contaminating our water, destroying
our land and also presenting increased risk for innocent hikers that may
inadvertently stumble across one of these gardens that are guarded by armed
men," Attorney General Bill Lockyer said in a statement last month.

California's marijuana seizures are increasing year by year, a result of
surveillance by plane coupled with larger garden sizes, the statement said.

From 1994 to 2004, the average raid grew from roughly 400 to about 3,400
plants. Last year, CAMP found and destroyed about $2.5 billion of the drug,
a record achievement. And this year, this amount already has surpassed
that, with $2.54 billion, according to the DOJ.

Schwanke said 784,272 plants have been eradicated in 128 raids this year to
date. CAMP's raid season targets the harvest period with about four teams
out each day.

Safety concerns for hikers

Gardens vary in size and location, but Dahmen said major cultivators often
seek out public areas because if marijuana is found on private property the
land can be confiscated.

That raises concerns that people hiking in remote areas may come across
camps like these and get into dangerous situations.

"It's entirely possible," he said. "The forest is a beautiful place to
visit, and that's why the USFS supports our efforts in trying to eradicate
these gardens."

Dahmen said hikers who encounter marijuana patches or aggressive
individuals in the forest should back away immediately and call 9-1-1.

But the problem is persistent and stands to increase as Mexican cartels
take advantage of northern California's expansive parklands, which offer
perfect conditions for the plant.

"Monterey County has an ideal climate for growing marijuana out of doors,"
Dahmen said. "We've had enforcement actions for as long as we can remember."