Police seized and destroyed thousands of marijuana plants
Thursday and arrested four men in possession of a stolen police
handgun, who police believe are connected with at least 10 covert
marijuana gardens growing in the remote hills of south San Benito
County.
Hollister – Police seized and destroyed thousands of marijuana plants Thursday and arrested four men in possession of a stolen police handgun, who police believe are connected with at least 10 covert marijuana gardens growing in the remote hills of south San Benito County.
Local and state drug agents spent three days scouting, scouring and eradicating the gardens located near the Hernandez Dam area, and arrested four men who they believe were cultivating the gardens on Wednesday, according to Bob Cooke, commander of the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement in San Jose.
Agents seized and destroyed 7,761 plants in seven different gardens on Wednesday, and while they didn’t have an exact tally by press time Thursday, estimated at least that many would be cut and buried Thursday, Cooke said.
Last year, drug agents seized about 11,000 plants total in San Benito County, according to Unified Narcotic Enforcement Team Commander Mark Colla. While the marijuana growing season usually lasts from around April to the end of August, this was the largest bust police made this season.
Officers said that the plants were some of the largest they had seen in years, reaching heights of 12 feet in some gardens. If the gardeners’ efforts to harvest the plants weren’t thwarted by police, they could have yield nearly $4,000 per plant on the street, Cooke said. That would total $60 million if police wind up busting 15,000 plants as expected.
The three men arrested, none of whom are San Benito County residents, were found near the entrance to the gardens and charged with a host of felonies, including cultivating marijuana, possession of marijuana for sale and carrying a concealed weapon, according to San Benito County Jail personnel.
Juventino Torres Delgado, 20, Armando Torres Delgado, 27 and Javier Valencia, 31, living in different cities throughout the state, were arrested and booked into the San Benito County Jail. However, the fourth man, Las Vegas resident Seth Lee Bennett, 28, was released Thursday and no charges were filed against him, according to jail personnel.
While the other three men are still in custody in lieu of $500,000 bail, it is unknown at this time why charges were not filed against Bennett.
About 30 officers with the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, California Department of Justice, local Unified Narcotic Enforcement Team and San Benito County Sheriff’s Department collaborated in the raid and arrests.
Due to the remoteness of the gardens, officers were flown into the patches by helicopter and hiked through the backcountry’s steep hills and deep ravines.
But the suspects were not found in the hills, but rather on the side of the road near the entrance to the gardens Wednesday. After a short interview, police took the men into custody and searched the vehicle they were driving in, Cooke said. During the search, they found a loaded 9mm handgun stolen from a Las Vegas police sergeant, Cooke said.
Because the gun was found in the car, all of the suspects were charged with additional charges of possession of stolen property, carrying a loaded gun in public and trespassing, according to jail personnel. Part of the land where the plants were growing was owned by the Bureau of Land Management.
While Cooke said police will conduct further investigation to link the men with the grow, he said information the suspects initially provided led police to arrest them with the felony charges.
Additionally, residents living in the rural area identified two of the suspects who they had seen coming and going in the area recently, Cooke said.
“We’re working on other evidence – shoe prints, fingerprints,” Cooke said. “Usually they leave garbage and other personal items behind (in the gardens).”
While making arrests in connection with a large marijuana grow isn’t rare, it isn’t common, either, Cooke said.
“It’s difficult to find people in marijuana grows,” he said. “We’re lucky. If it hadn’t been for the people living down here and being extremely cooperative, we probably wouldn’t have been able to make those arrests.”
Police will now focus on compiling more evidence in an attempt to connect the men to the gardens. While grows in that area are often linked to Mexican organized crime, Cooke said it is unlikely that they can trace the men arrested to one specific organization.
Marijuana gardens are usually found by helicopter, but are very well camouflaged. Sometimes its something small that catches an officer’s eye, such as a water line crisscrossing the hillside or a fertilizer bag left out in the open.
Erin Musgrave covers public safety for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or [email protected]
