SWAT TEAM RAIDS RUGGED POT CAMPS

The SWAT team of the Amador County Sheriff's Office led a raid Sunday
on two camps in the steep terrain of the El Dorado National Forest.
From a deserted compound they seized 9,449 marijuana plant in a
suspected "commercial" farming operation, the office said Tuesday.

No arrests were made.

On Saturday, the sheriff's Marijuana Suppression Unit located a
possible cannabis cultivation site in the East Panther Creek area of
El Dorado National Forest, within Amador County, Sheriff Michael F.
Prizmich said in a news release.

On Sunday, the sheriff's SWAT team "covertly accessed the cannabis
cultivation site in an effort to locate and arrest those responsible
for tending the cannabis plants," Prizmich said. "Upon entry into the
camp and numerous cultivation areas, the site was cleared and found
unoccupied."

"The Marijuana Suppression Unit then joined the SWAT team in
collecting physical evidence and eradicating the cannabis plants," he
said. "Evidence found at the scene indicated that those responsible
for cultivating the cannabis abandoned the site the day prior."

The site was found to be made up of one large camp and one satellite
camp, he said. Evidence they found "supported that two subjects were
responsible for tending the cannabis which was being prepared for
harvest" and "evidence of one firearm was located in the main camp."

Prizmich said 9,449 marijuana plants, ranging from 1 to 5 feet in
height were found in a total of 12 growing areas.

Capt. Jim Wegner of the sheriff's office said it was a "fairly
significant" seizure and he conservatively estimated the street value
of the marijuana at $500,000. He said Wednesday that just less that
700 pounds of cannabis plants had been found, though that included a
"wet weight," due to rain and snow and it included the entire plants
and roots. Wegner said the illegal plants were cultivated at an
elevation of about 5,000 feet and 12 sheriff's personnel, including
SWAT and MSU members conducted the raid, working in rain and snow on
Sunday.

Wegner said most of the marijuana had already been
destroyed.

Health and safety legal code allows for the lead investigative agent
to destroy any controlled substance cache seized over 10 pounds,
provided 10 pounds of it is kept as evidence and five representative
and random samples are taken, along with photographs. The total weight
of the destroyed drugs also must be measured or estimated.

"The cannabis plants were irrigated via gravity fed PVC hose
stretching nearly one-half of a mile," Prizmich said. Due to the steep
terrain, the eradicated cannabis plants were transported from the
cultivation sites via helicopter."

The "method and style" of the operation, "coupled with evidence seized
at the site indicates this cultivation site is consistent with a
Mexican drug organization commercial cannabis cultivation operation,"
Prizmich said.

Wegner said the style of the operation seemed to be consistent with
those run elsewhere in the United States and California by Mexican
gangs, which finance such operation and typically hire illegal
immigrants, such as Mexican nationals to live at a site and grow the
illegal crop. He said the farmers are typically paid a certain amount
and live at the site for three to five months, through the entire
process and the plant, tend and eventually harvest the crop. The gang
in such cases would even drop supplies to the farmers, he said and
some gangs could have five to 10 gardens going at once and make
enormous amounts of money.

Evidence seized at the site will be analyzed by the sheriff's evidence
technician and the California Department of Justice, in an effort to
identify possible suspects, Wegner said.