Pubdate: Wed, 16 Aug 2000
Source: San Luis Obispo County Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2000 The Tribune
Contact:  P.O. Box 112, San Luis Obispo, CA 93406-0112
Fax: 805.781.7905
Website: http://www.thetribunenews.com/
Author: Leila W. Knox, The Tribune
Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n750/a03.html

DEPUTIES RETURN TO A FAMILIAR PLACE

5,000 Plants Found Near Site Of Larger Haul Last Year

Sheriff's deputies uncovered more than 5,000 marijuana plants and arrested 
two suspects in the hills above Los Osos Tuesday morning.

Francisco Garcia, 44, of Santa Maria, and Octavio Mendoza, 52, of Mexico, 
were booked at County Jail on charges of marijuana cultivation.

A sheriff's investigator stands Tuesday among marijuana plants near Clark 
Valley Road in Los Osos. Mendoza, who reportedly drew a 9 mm pistol when 
deputies made contact with him, was booked on an additional charge of 
assault with a deadly weapon.

Deputies discovered the crops on private land in a remote area above Clark 
Valley Road just a few hundred yards east of the site where 7,000 plants 
were found in July 1999. No arrests were made in last year's bust.

Sheriff Patrick Hedges said there is currently no indication that the two 
crops are related, but said they will investigate possible connections.

The plants found Tuesday were located in several spots along and below a 
quarter-mile ridge that is dense with oak trees, poison oak and scrub brush.

"It's semi-remote and fairly decent weather," Hedges said of the site's 
suitability for marijuana crops. He added that there is a good potential 
for water there, as evidenced by the drip-irrigation system.

The property owner is not a suspect in the growing operation.

Hedges said that this time of year usually yields a pot bust for the 
Sheriff's office.

"The way the cultivation process works is" the seeds are planted in the 
late spring, Hedges said, and "this is the time of year that plants are 
starting to mature."

He said the street value of each crop is estimated by some at $3,000.

Hedges said the latest crop was found through a Sheriff's office investigation.

"We've been doing them periodically throughout the county," he said.

Hedges would not specify how these crops were found, but said they 
typically gather information through airplane flyovers and called-in tips. 
They also check areas where plants have been found before.

Deputies will cut and bail the 5,000-plus plants from the site and burn 
them in a bonfire.

Mendoza and Garcia are being held at County Jail on $50,000 bail each.
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