Hollister
– A Dos Palos man was placed on three years felony probation in
San Benito County Superior Court Wednesday for his role in the
cultivation of 2,762 marijuana plants in the Panoche Hills.
Hollister – A Dos Palos man was placed on three years felony probation in San Benito County Superior Court Wednesday for his role in the cultivation of 2,762 marijuana plants in the Panoche Hills.
Michael Lee Hennagan, 57, was also sentenced to 180 days in the San Benito County Jail with credit for time served.
“We’re satisfied with the results,” said Greg LaForge, Hennagan’s court-appointed attorney. “He wasn’t the major player.”
Hennagan and Francisco Tovar were arrested after a United Narcotic Enforcement Team’s raid of a ranch house on Panoche Road in August revealed marijuana plants worth $524,000.
Hennagan was arrested on felony charges of growing marijuana, conspiracy and possession of an illegal assault rifle. He pleaded no contest to felony cultivation of marijuana.
Tovar, a 36-year-old Gustine resident, was booked on felony charges of growing marijuana, conspiracy and illegal gun possession. Tovar was charged with one felony count of possessing an assault weapon and one felony count of illegal cultivation of marijuana.
Tovar’s whereabouts are unknown, District Attorney-Elect Candice Hooper said.
Inside the house, agents found and seized an AK-47 assault rifle and a shotgun. The serial number on the AK-47 had been “obliterated,” according to incident reports. They also confiscated a loaded pistol from Tovar’s pickup truck.
Hennagan told UNET agents that he had allowed Tovar and two other unidentified men to use the ranch to grow marijuana, according to police reports. In exchange for letting the men use the ranch, Hennagan told agents, he was promised payment of $15,000 to $20,000 after the pot had been harvested and sold, the report stated.
Tovar denied involvement in the growing operation and gave agents permission to search his home in Gustine. There agents found a .38-caliber pistol and “remnants of an indoor marijuana grow” in the attic, according to the report.
UNET agents were assisted in the bust by officers from the San Benito County Sheriff’s Office, the San Jose Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, the federal Drug Enforcement Agency and the Bureau of Land Management.
Hennagan faced a maximum of three years in state prison, but because he had no priors he was eligible for probation, Hooper said.
Hennagan’s case brings back a bizarre piece of San Benito County history for some long-time county residents.
In June of 1981 undercover San Benito County Fish and Game officers, working with San Francisco Examiner outdoors writer Tom Stienstra, arrested Michael Hennagan’s uncles, Donald Hennagan and Sidney “Joe” Hennagan, for operating an illegal hunting resort on the same ranch where the marijuana bust occurred. The ranch, owned by Donald Hennagan, was providing wild boar hunters, who typically hunt boars no larger than 300 pounds, with domesticated pigs weighing as much as 1,300 pounds, according to the Examiner.
Michael Van Cassell covers public safety for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 335 or [email protected].
