Cali smoke
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Alameda Sheriff's deputies find 22,000 pot plants on government property
Sean Maher
Oakland Tribune
Posted: 06/15/2009 05:56:08 AM PDT
Updated: 06/15/2009 08:04:16 AM PDT
SUNOL — Sheriff's deputies discovered more than 22,000 marijuana plants growing on land owned by the San Francisco Water District last week, in what officials called the largest marijuana bust in the history of the Alameda County Sheriff's Office.
In the Calaveras Road area east of Sunol, where water runoff feeds into the Calaveras Reservoir, deputies found 24 interlinked gardens, three camp sites and three kitchens, Sgt. Shawn Peterson said.
A pair of nearby creeks had been tapped with water lines to feed into the gardens, he added.
Deputies also discovered two men who appeared to be in their late 20s wearing woodland camouflage clothing and working in the gardens, Peterson said.
The two men fled and deputies chased. Both men escaped through heavy brush and deep ravines, but the deputies recovered a semiautomatic handgun one of the men discarded as he ran.
The department had been alerted two weeks earlier by a witness who reported seeing a teenage boy running in camouflage clothing up a creek bed nearby. The resulting investigation turned up the gardens.
The total amount of the drugs seized was impressive, according to Peterson.
"This is the largest-ever marijuana growing operation the Alameda County Sheriff's Office has encountered," he said.
Marijuana remains the most widely available and abused illicit substance in California, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration's Web site. Although huge demand for marijuana has traditionally been for smuggled crops from Mexico and Canada, in recent years plants grown in the state have become a larger part of the market, the DEA said.
Anyone with information on the gardens is asked to call Peterson at 510-667-3633.
Sean Maher
Oakland Tribune
Posted: 06/15/2009 05:56:08 AM PDT
Updated: 06/15/2009 08:04:16 AM PDT
SUNOL — Sheriff's deputies discovered more than 22,000 marijuana plants growing on land owned by the San Francisco Water District last week, in what officials called the largest marijuana bust in the history of the Alameda County Sheriff's Office.
In the Calaveras Road area east of Sunol, where water runoff feeds into the Calaveras Reservoir, deputies found 24 interlinked gardens, three camp sites and three kitchens, Sgt. Shawn Peterson said.
A pair of nearby creeks had been tapped with water lines to feed into the gardens, he added.
Deputies also discovered two men who appeared to be in their late 20s wearing woodland camouflage clothing and working in the gardens, Peterson said.
The two men fled and deputies chased. Both men escaped through heavy brush and deep ravines, but the deputies recovered a semiautomatic handgun one of the men discarded as he ran.
The department had been alerted two weeks earlier by a witness who reported seeing a teenage boy running in camouflage clothing up a creek bed nearby. The resulting investigation turned up the gardens.
The total amount of the drugs seized was impressive, according to Peterson.
"This is the largest-ever marijuana growing operation the Alameda County Sheriff's Office has encountered," he said.
Marijuana remains the most widely available and abused illicit substance in California, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration's Web site. Although huge demand for marijuana has traditionally been for smuggled crops from Mexico and Canada, in recent years plants grown in the state have become a larger part of the market, the DEA said.
Anyone with information on the gardens is asked to call Peterson at 510-667-3633.
