Gilroy
– In the 10 days that followed an Aug. 1 raid on a Morgan Hill
marijuana farm, drug enforcement officials busted two more near
Gilroy Hot Springs.
The two busts netted 8,600 pot plants worth about $30
million.
Gilroy – In the 10 days that followed an Aug. 1 raid on a Morgan Hill marijuana farm, drug enforcement officials busted two more near Gilroy Hot Springs.
The two busts netted 8,600 pot plants worth about $30 million.
At both sites, the illegal growers did severe environmental damage to nearby creeks and woodlands, according to state game warden John Nores. At the larger of the pot farms, Nores said someone had dumped fertilizer directly into a small, unnamed tributary of Coyote Creek, killing all plant and animal life there. The aquatic denizens of creeks in that area include three threatened species, Nores said: steelhead trout and red- and yellow-legged frogs.
On Aug. 5, state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement agents seized about 6,000 marijuana plants in a small, narrow canyon about three miles northwest of Gilroy Hot Springs, according to Nores, who participated in the multi-agency raid on behalf of the state Department of Fish and Game.
Then, on Aug. 11, the Santa Clara County sheriff’s Marijuana Suppression Unit seized 2,600 plants from a terraced hillside about two miles northwest of the hot springs, according to Sgt. Joseph Waldherr, who supervises the two-deputy unit. Waldherr said a deputy – trained in spotting marijuana fields – discovered the field from a helicopter a few weeks before the raid.
Waldherr declined to release the street value, but in an Aug. 9 bust south of Salinas, Monterey County sheriff’s detectives valued 5,800 plants at about $20 million – $3,450 per plant. Based on that, the Aug. 11 seizure was worth $9 million, the Aug. 5 one $20.7 million and the Aug. 1 one (4,600 plants) $15.9 million – for a total of $45.6 million.
No arrests were reported in either of the raids, but deputies saw a person flee through the dense woods as they approached the latter site on foot, Waldherr said.
“(Pot growers) have got so much time and money invested, they’re worried about getting ripped off,” Waldherr said. “That’s why they’re in there guarding them.”
This is the time of year to bust illegal marijuana fields, since the harvest is usually in late August or September, according to the Monterey County detectives.
In addition to dumping fertilizer, Nores said the growers at both sites had built a series of dams that stopped one of the creeks’ flow entirely.
“There were diverting what little water was left in the creek to pretty much water the garden,” Nores said.
Open Space Authority general manager Patrick Congdon said, “When we look at uses of our lands, whether they are legal or illegal, this tops the charts in terms of environmental damage.”
