Bountiful year for pot busts in Yuba County
Seizures of marijuana planted by drug trafficking organizations in the Yuba County foothills are up by 31 percent this year — and the harvest season is not over, according to the Yuba County Sheriff's Department.
Deputy Scott Rounds, who's helped eradicate five gardens this year near Bullards Bar Reservoir in the Tahoe and Plumas national forests and on private property, said 19,326 plants have been seized compared to 14,767 all of last year.
More pot gardens are being discovered all over Northern California. But it's not clear if Mexican drug trafficking organizations, or DTOs, are planting more, or if state and local law enforcement agencies are doing a better job of finding them, according to the Sheriff's Department.
Department officials credit other agencies, including the state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement and the U.S. Forest Service, for helping increase this year's increased eradication rate.
The public has also helped. An employee of a forest management service, The Chy Company of Grass Valley, spotted a garden on private land and alerted authorities, leading to a raid, said Rounds.
A risk to public
With another month to go in the marijuana harvest season and deer hunting season under way, the risk remains that a member of the public will stumble on a garden being watched by armed guards, Rounds said.
"We want people to know they could be dealing with armed resistance," said another member of the eradication team, Deputy Mark Heath.
Since workers — usually Mexican nationals — begin preparing gardens as early as April, the danger exists more than half the year, and the large size of the gardens increases the risk. The latest garden, found south of Marysville Road near the reservoir, covered three-quarters of a square mile, said Lt. Shaun Smith, who heads the eradication team.
"It's just a matter of time before a hiker or Forest Service worker stumbles on a garden — if they haven't already done so," Rounds said.
Sheriff Steve Durfor urged the public to report suspicious activity, anonymously if desired, that could be related to a DTO pot garden. No court appearance is involved, he said.
A hunter may stumble across a drip line that's feeding pot plants, Durfor said.
"We want you to call us," Durfor said.
Officers, of course, are most at risk. Last year in California, there were eight shooting incidents at pot gardens where an officer or suspect was hit. No one's been shot in Yuba County, although on July 12 a suspected grower fired once but missed as deputies approached, Rounds said.
Last year near Oregon House, two U.S. Forest Service biologists were confronted by a suspected grower who ordered them to leave, he said.
Some gardens are booby trapped, putting the public in even greater danger. In another county, four shotgun shells were bound together, a homemade version of the military's claymore mine, he said.
Growers hide gardens
Most gardens are spotted from the air — and growers take measures to prevent that from happening, such as undercutting manzanita or blackberry bushes and planting shorter varieties of marijuana underneath, Heath said.
In Sierra County, growers tried to disguise their crop as tomato plants by attaching red ornaments, he said.
Growers camouflage themselves and their camps and have taken to burying water lines running from streams to plants. When trees are cut down — sometime a whole hillside's worth — to make room for plants, the ends of stumps are painted over, Rounds said.
Growers don't use noisy rototillers to cultivate; all the work is done with picks and shovels, he said.
But some of the equipment is growing more sophisticated. For the first time this year, officers found an automatic watering system with sprinkler timers, according to Rounds.
Gardens harm environment
The environmental damage growers do is one more reason to suppress gardens. Growers dam streams to create pools, then add pesticides to the water, which is transported to plants via drip lines, said Rounds.
Ann Westling, public affairs officer for the Tahoe National Forest, said damming the streams harms native vegetation growth and aquatic species.
"The use of pesticides can kill wildlife, including the critters that eat the poison as well as other up the food chain," Westling said.
Terracing on hillsides, which some growers practice, causes soil erosion, while waste left at camps "can present a health and human safety impact due to limited sanitation facilities," she said.
A meth connection?
Heath cited what he called the best reason to raid pot gardens: DTOs grow pot to finance their methamphetamine operations, he said.
Mike Hudson, commander of the Yuba-Sutter Narcotic and Gang Enforcement Team and a special agent supervisor for the state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, or BNE, disagreed.
"I haven't heard of any DTO financing their methamphetamine production and distribution by cultivating marijuana," Hudson said.
"The marijuana DTOs pretty much stick to marijuana, however during the winter months, at times, they will traffic in methamphetamine," he said.
Other "poly drug" DTOs "are involved in any illicit drug which generates income, thus furthering the organization," Hudson said.
Some DTOs are connected to established Mexican drug cartels, though most operate separately, he said.
Hudson thinks DTOs are planting more gardens in Northern California because of the climate, the elevation — 1,000 feet to 3,500 feet is preferred — and large rural areas that are seldom visited. That and better law enforcement have led to the increase in seizures, he said.
"Several years ago, (the BNE) established a NorCal team dedicated to investigating marijuana DTOs. The team has helped local law enforcement and our drug task forces learn how the DTOs operate and set up huge gardens," he said.
The BNE and local law enforcement coordinate flights that spot large "industrial" marijuana gardens on public lands, he said.
Also, local farmers, ranchers and Bureau of Land Management workers are more aware of the signs of possible marijuana gardens, Hudson said.
CONTACT reporter Rob Young at 749-4784.
