[420 Girl]

Northern California - Law enforcement agents seized more than 53,000 marijuana plants and arrested 38 people in raids on northern Mendocino County pot gardens last week.

They also confiscated 336 pounds of processed marijuana, 30 pounds of hashish, 14 guns and $25,225 in cash, said Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman.

Only eight of the people arrested were from Mendocino County.

“It means the reputation Mendocino County has of people coming here and making millions is still out there,” Allman said.

Some of the suspects are from other states, including Hawaii, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Nevada, Texas and New Jersey. One was from Canada.

The week’s pot eradication count was higher than usual, accounting for about 10 percent of the 500,000-plus plants seized so far this season.

North Coast law enforcement officials have already shattered the record for pot seizures set last year, when federal, state and local officials confiscated more than 400,000 plants in Mendocino County alone.

Advocates for marijuana legalization say the ever-increasing numbers of plants seized each year means the war on pot production is futile. Allman blamed it on rising levels of greed.

Nine county, state and federal agencies participated in last week’s operations, which were conducted in northeastern Mendocino County’s notorious pot-growing regions near Laytonville and Covelo.

A majority of the plants, 30,139, were seized from several gardens planted by trespassers on private forest land near Branscomb Road.

Some of the raids were triggered by a marijuana growing operation near Island Mountain that was illegally diverting water from the Eel River, Allman said. Law officials spotted the 4-inch water pipes from the air while searching for hidden pot gardens, Allman said.

“We said, ‘Let’s focus there,’” he said.

The District Attorney is considering charging the six people arrested at that location with environmental crimes in addition to marijuana cultivation charges, he said.

Allman said only people growing illegally need to be concerned by the ongoing eradication efforts.

“We are going to continue focusing on large gardens and continue to respect legitimate medical (marijuana),” he said.


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