POT BUST YIELDS 61,000 PLANTS WORTH MORE THAN $195 MILLION

Three men were arrested Sunday after authorities found and destroyed
about 61,000 marijuana plants near Highway 166, authorities said.

The Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo sheriff's departments found the
plants Friday in a 3- mile area just east of Twitchell Reservoir. The
plants were spotted during a Santa Barbara County sheriff's helicopter
patrol.

The marijuana plants, ranging from 1 to 8 feet high, were in nine
separate growing areas near the riverbed, according to the Santa
Barbara Sheriff's Department. If the mature plants were harvested,
they would have been worth more than $195 million, the department estimated.

Investigators believe that the area had been cultivated over several
seasons and evidence shows the plants were being tended by
undocumented Mexican immigrants, a case similar to other pot busts in
the area, authorities said.

Sunday morning, narcotics officers from the Santa Barbara County
Sheriff's Department returned to the area and found three men near the
site where the marijuana was being grown.

The three were arrested on suspicion of violations unrelated to the
marijuana, Sgt. Brian Hascall of the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's
Department said, but it is investigating whether the men were involved
with the marijuana production.

Fransisco Hinojosa, 35, was arrested on suspicion of obstructing
justice and driving without a license. Rafael Zavala, 27, and Pedro
Alvarez, 24, were arrested on suspicion of providing false information
to a peace officer, according to the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department.

All three are on immigration hold with Immigration and Customs
Enforcement. Zavala and Hinojosa have been deported in the past and
may face felony immigration charges for illegal re-entry, according to
the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Depar tment.

Hascall said after marijuana plantations are harvested and the pot is
sold, profits are used to fuel production of methamphetamine, which is
smuggled from Mexico into the United States.

"It has all the indications of that type of a grow," he said of the
plants found Friday.

Ammunition was also found in the area, but not weapons, according to
the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department.