Pubdate: Sat, 14 August 1999 Source: Lompoc Record (CA) Copyright: 1999 The Lompoc Record Contact: http://www.lompocrecord.com/ Author: Rick Tuttle, The Record Staff Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n836.a09.html LOS PADRES POT BUST TWICE AS LARGE AS EXPECTED 8/13/99 The largest marijuana drug bust in Santa Barbara County since 1989 keeps getting bigger. As law enforcement agents from local, state and federal agencies continued to eradicate an illegal marijuana garden in Los Padres National Forest Wednesday, the yield from the original find and the discovery of five smaller gardens have doubled early estimates. By day's end Thursday, 10,009 marijuana plants had been cut from the original garden - located along Bear Creek, just south of Highway 154 near Lake Cachuma- and 398 plants had been found in the five newly-discovered gardens nearby. The original garden was first discovered in late June by Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department aerial reconnaissance. The new total puts the estimated street value at more than $30 million. "As I understand they're continuing to work today so those numbers will probably rise," said Kathy Goode, spokeswoman for the Los Padres National Forest. Before agents raided the garden Tuesday morning and after a month-long investigation of the site, authorities believed they had a sizable garden estimated at between 5,000 to 7,000 plants, with a street value topping $15 million. The original garden - less than a mile off Highway 154 near Paradise Road - was too treacherous to reach by foot, so about 40 law enforcement personnel were transported by helicopter to the garden area Wednesday and Thursday, where they cut the crop with machetes and bundled it for transport. The bundles were put into nets and then airlifted onto flatbed trucks parked at the Live Oak Campgrounds. They were then transported to an undisclosed location to be burned and destroyed. The discovery is the biggest bust in the Los Padres National Forest since 1989 when 13,000 plants were discovered near Cuyama. When authorities raided the garden early Tuesday afternoon two men, believed to be Mexican nationals, escaped into the forest and remain at large. The two men left a camp with a tent, a stove, and provisions to last a couple months. They also left fingerprints at the scene that may lead to arrests, a Sheriff's Department officials said. Forestry officials said the crop was about a month from full maturation of the tops, or "buds," and harvesting of the mature crop would have been within the next two months. The raid was a cooperative effort with the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department, Department of Justice, Santa Barbara Police, Santa Maria Police, and the U.S. Forest Service. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D