Authorities on Wednesday morning located about 30 acres of corn concealing marijuana—along with buildings to process it—in the San Juan Bautista and San Martin areas.
Authorities at about 7 a.m. Wednesday found about 15 acres of marijuana and corn on Olympia Avenue between Lucy Brown Lane and Bixby Road east of San Juan Bautista after agencies issued search warrants, said Eric Taylor, the operations captain for the San Benito County Sheriff Office.
“We haven’t walked it to see how many plant are still inside the corn and we haven’t got an estimate for how much of it has already been processed,” Taylor said Wednesday.
Taylor likened the situation near San Juan Bautista to another recent pot bust on Frye Lane in the county, where authorities served a search warrant on a 30-acre cornfield and arrested 12 people. In both cases, marijuana was concealed in the crops.
About 20 people were detained at the property just outside of San Juan Bautista on Wednesday, Taylor said.
“Probably 30 ran and we caught 20 of them,” he said.
The agencies received information about the sites within the last few weeks, the captain said. They served search warrants at both sites at the same time because they were unsure if the two locations—which both have marijuana growing in corn and some buildings for processing—were related, Taylor said.
Taylor believes authorities at the San Martin site—located off Center Avenue—detained two people, he said.
The location in San Benito County was served by several agencies including the California Highway Patrol, the Department of Corrections, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, San Benito probation, the San Benito Sheriff’s Office, the Monterey County SWAT team and the Unified Narcotic Enforcement Team, Taylor said.
The San Martin site involved the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office; the County Special Enforcement Team, which is its narcotic team; the Santa Clara County SWAT; the San Benito County Sheriff’s Office; and part of the Unified Narcotic Enforcement Team, Taylor said.
Those arrested will be booked on recommended charges of marijuana cultivation, resisting arrest and conspiracy, Taylor said.
