MAJOR MARIJUANA GROW OPERATION FOILED

Seven Cornelius Residents Arrested in Multi-Agency Bust That Seizes
5,500 Plants

A multi-agency drug task force arrested seven Cornelius residents
yesterday in connection marijuana growing operations on public and
private forest land in Washington, Yamhill and Tillamook counties.

The Washington County Sheriff's department reported yesterday that
search warrants executed on three houses and five vehicles in
Cornelius led to the arrests, which were made in two sweeps.

The search warrants were obtained based on information gathered during
an investigation that over the last month led to the seizure of 5,500
marijuana plants in three northwestern Oregon counties

In most cases, police said, the grow operations were guarded by armed
men who were sleeping in the vicinity of the marijuana gardens. Some
of the grow operations were being carried out on Bureau of Land
Management land. The rest of the marijuana was found on private forest
land. Officials said none of the land was owned by Stimson Lumber,
Co., one the largest private landowners in the area.

[redacted] was charged with
frequenting a place where controlled substances are used.

Later in the day, [redacted] were
arrested and charged with manufacturing and distributing a controlled
substance.

According to Washington County Jail records, Immigration and Customs
Enforcement holds have been placed on [redacted].

In addition, [redacted] was taken into custody by U.S.
Marshalls on a drug-related federal warrant yesterday and was booked
at the Multnomah County Jail.

Several law-enforcement agencies participated in the investigation and
execution of the warrants, including the Westside Interagency
Narcotics team (a coalition of Westside police agencies and the
national guard), McMinnville Police, Newberg Police, the Yamhill
County and Tillamook County Sherriff's Offices, Oregon Department of
Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Agency,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Bureau of Land Management and two
SWAT teams.