Hollister
– Unified Narcotics Enforcement Team agents confiscated and
destroyed $400,000 worth of high-grade marijuana plants found in
rural San Benito County Tuesday and say more busts are planned for
later this summer.
Hollister – Unified Narcotics Enforcement Team agents confiscated and destroyed $400,000 worth of high-grade marijuana plants found in rural San Benito County Tuesday and say more busts are planned for later this summer.
The 10,300 plants were found in three separate gardens off of Lone Tree Road near the east foothills of the Diablo Mountain Range, said UNET Cmdr. Mark Colla. The plants were between four and six feet tall and could have produced between two to three pounds of high-grade sinsemilla marijuana each, Colla said. Wholesale the plants would have netted growers profits of more than $120,000, but on the street the plants could have produced about $400,000 worth of marijuana, Colla said.
“When you look at it, we destroyed about five tons of marijuana growing in Hollister’s backyard,” Colla said. “We’re taking a huge amount of drugs away from these folks that now can’t be sold on the street.”
UNET agents teamed up with law enforcement officers from the San Benito County Sheriff’s Office, Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office and the Department of Justice to raid the three gardens Tuesday morning. Although the marijuana was being grown on private property, Colla said the property owners were not involved in the operation.
No arrests were made during Tuesday’s bust, but agents found one well-provisioned camp at the site. The gardens, which are often funded by Mexican cartels, are usually tended by low-level gardeners, who flee their posts at the first sign of trouble.
“One of the new trends we’ve been noticing is that growers come in to start the garden, then leave and stress the plants. That makes all the growth go to the buds and creates bigger buds,” Colla said. “So not only to they get bigger buds, the growers have less chance of being arrested.”
Forensic evidence found at the camp site near the gardeners will be processed and could produce arrests later, Colla said.
Colla said working with law enforcement agencies throughout the Central Coast in a regional approach to eradicating marijuana has taken millions of dollars of marijuana off the street.
Tuesday’s raid marks the second large-scale marijuana bust in San Benito County this year. In July, UNET agents seized and destroyed 10,434 plants growing on private property in Aromas.
For nearly a decade, dope farmers haven taken up stakes in San Benito County. In 1999 more marijuana was confiscated in San Benito than any other county in California. That year law enforcement officers found and destroyed nearly 900,000 marijuana plants. Last year, about 51,000 plants were destroyed.
Brett Rowland covers public safety for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or br******@fr***********.com.
