DEPUTIES ARREST SEVEN, FIND WEAPONS AND GAMECOCKS IN RAID ON MARIJUANA FARM

Santa Clara County sheriff's deputies arrested seven people Sunday
during a raid on a pot-growing operation that also turned up seven
weapons and dozens of gamecocks, a sheriff's spokesman said today.

The early morning raid on a ramshackle farm in the hilly Paradise
Valley area west of Morgan Hill followed a weeklong stakeout by the
sheriff's marijuana suppression team.

"During the time of searching the property, we discovered over 80
cocks used for fighting and all of the paraphernalia associated with
it," Deputy Terrance Helm said.

Sheriff's officials would not disclose how many marijuana plants were
confiscated during the raid.

Paradise Valley resident Peter Walsh said neighbors have long cast a
wary eye on goings-on at the site, which is in the Armsby
Lane/Sycamore Drive area.

"All of us were concerned about the brutality to these birds. We knew
that there were cocks being sold for cockfighting," he said. Walsh
said neighbors also worried about the alleged gang members who go
there every Friday and Saturday night, apparently to buy the animals.
He said he was not aware of any cockfighting at the site in recent
times.

The names of those arrested and the charges against them were not
available Monday.