I saw this and couldn’t resist the laughter. I was almost dieing of laughter actually. The city next to my home town, about 5 minutes away, they found 800 pot plants…well, you can read the article here.
Nearly 800 marijuana plants estimated to be worth at least $1.6 million were chopped down and seized Friday morning in Newbury Park after a two-month investigation by the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department and other agencies.
A 22-year-old man from the Los Angeles area was arrested, and authorities were still looking for another suspect Friday night. Servondo Ponce Villa was booked into Ventura County Jail on suspicion of being armed while illegally cultivating marijuana. His bail was set at $90,000.
The bust began early Friday morning with about 45 agents from the Sheriff’s Department, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and a multi-agency narcotics task force.
The crop was in public open space managed by the Conejo Open Space Conservation Agency. The site, nestled between Baxter Healthcare and a residential community, contains a natural irrigation ditch and was considered prime land for the harvest, authorities said.
“They’re set up pretty well to grow pot,” said Eric Nishimoto, sheriff’s spokesman.
Although the size of the grove was not as large as others in previous busts, authorities were concerned by the close proximity of the plants to a major corporation and a residential neighborhood.
The plants are believed to have been planted in March or April and would have been ready for harvest in August or September.
Narcotics agents first noticed the site during an air patrol about two months ago.
“It takes a lot of planning to do this,” said Sgt. Bret Uhlich with the sheriff’s narcotics division.
A similar grove was raided two years ago in the same location. At that time, about 760 plants were seized and no arrests were made.
Other stands of marijuana plants have been found from time to time in Los Padres National Forest and other state or national parks.
Harvesters of marijuana typically camp at the sites while the plants grow, and often arm themselves to protect their crops. Authorities said Villa had a machine gun.
“They’re taking guarding the grows more seriously these days,” Nishimoto said.
One danger of such operations on public land is that as growers protect their crops more aggressively, they could attack hikers or other people who are using public lands for recreational pursuits.
Although a hiking trail runs near the site of the marijuana crop seized Friday, the area of the harvest is not open to public use and it is not likely people would have hiked through it, said Glen Kinney, a park ranger with the Conejo Open Space Conservation Agency.
Friday’s operation marked the first big pot bust this summer in Ventura County. After being cut down, the plants were taken to another location to be destroyed. Large marijuana crops are now buried rather than burned, Nishimoto said.
“Pot doesn’t grow back so we don’t have to worry about anything sprouting,” he said.
The seized marijuana is considered especially high grade because it is a seedless variety, harvested from the budding female plants. Growers maximize their crops by removing the male plants, which have seeds. Without the males, the female plants tend to grow more aggressively and produce more THC, the chemical that makes marijuana a stimulant.
The plants seized Friday were between 5 feet and 6 feet in height and not yet fully mature. Each plant can produce about a pound of street marijuana, which can sell for $2,000 to $3,000.
