DRUG AGENTS CONFISCATE 2,600 MARIJUANA PLANTS

Drug agents raided a field teeming with more than 2,600 marijuana plants
worth $10 million in the east foothills of Mount Hamilton on Sunday morning
and arrested two San Jose men, officials said Monday.

The men, ages 27 and 35, were arrested on cultivation and other charges as
they tended to the plants, an irrigation system and a large dam in the San
Antonio Valley.

Nearby residents called police after noticing a suspicious car in the area,
said detective Steve Dennis of the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department.

The 4-foot-high plants were among pine, shrub and California oak, he said.
The five-acre area of pot was in a remote, rugged spot about three-quarters
of a mile off the roadway.

Officials would not release the suspects' names because they expect more
arrests. One suspect was armed with a stolen rifle, police said.

The bust is one of the first of the pot-growing season, which lasts until
October. Last year, agents seized 47,574 plants in the county, according to
representatives of the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting. Nearly half of
that came from a single bust in September when 21,000 plants were seized
near Mount Madonna County Park.