By Amy Sienicki
 
November 3, 2009
 
NEAR SEIAD VALLEY, Calif. - More than seven million marijuana plants have been seized from outdoor gardens in the state of California so far in 2009.
 
In Oregon, 195,000 plants have been seized, more than double the amount from 2008. The Drug Enforcement Agency says that is due to two factors. One is that law enforcement is doing a better job at finding marijuana. The other is that much more pot is being grown.
 
"It's a money crop. That's the whole reason they're out there doing this is because it's big money," said Sergeant Mike Gilley with the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Department.
 
A multi-agency bust in August turned up more than 200,000 pot plants in Siskiyou County, accounting for about one-billion dollars in lost profit to marijuana growers. The two day operation near Highway 96 northwest of Yreka was the largest single seizure of marijuana plants in county history, and one of the largest ever in the state.
 
"It is easier to grow here, and without trying to get it across the border. They distribute all over the nation, distribute across Canada," said Captain Jim Betts with the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Department.
 
Instead of smuggling in the cash crop, drug cartels are more often growing marijuana in national forests.
 
"It started in the 80s when people were growing what would be a large garden for us. What we'd find in the mountains out here like this would be 25 to 50 plants. At that time we weren't using helicopters. We bundled these things up and took them out on our backs," Betts said.
 
Now, it takes aerial help and SWAT teams to locate and remove the gardens.
 
"We started seeing this around 2000. 2002 was when we started finding out really how big the scope of this was. We started running into cartel gardens," Gilley said.
 
"Our national forests, those are our treasures. I mean the pristine forests, the national parks this is where people want to go to maybe bicycle, hike, fish, camp. And when they have marijuana traffickers that are heavily armed in there that are growing marijuana on our public lands, that presents a clear and present danger," DEA Assistant Special Agent Gordon Taylor said.
 
One marijuana operation found near Mt. Shasta was just three miles from some popular trails around Lake Siskiyou.
 
"Now, if an unsuspecting hiker happens to get off the beaten track and stumbles into one of these grows, they can be encountered at gun point and in some instances they've even been shot at or shot," Taylor said.
 
The gardens are usually run by Mexican nationals.
 
"A lot of times the families are held captive or kidnapped and under threat if they lose the garden or if something does happen to this cash crop, these families could be threatened," Gilley said.
 
They man their crop 24-hours-a-day from spring to fall.
 
"They'll have a manager, and the manager is the one who oversees the entire garden and the whole operation. And he'll make scheduled drops. And what he drops off with his food, equipment, and it's usually a weeks worth of food," said Deputy Robert Konieczny with the Josephine County Sheriff's Office.
 
The drip system is one of the ways eradication teams can tell the organized crime is based out of Mexico.
 
Agents also find dangerous weapons in the gardens.
 
"There has not been one garden we've gone into over the years where we haven't at least found rifles, handguns, or ammunition... We find anything from 22s to AK 47s to 300 Winchester Magnums," Betts said.
 
"Obviously, we're not going to solve this problem by just arresting people. We need to educate people on the harmful effects of marijuana and the dangers involved and let them actually view the big picture," Taylor said.
 
The marijuana operations fuel other drugs. Even though there's been a dramatic decrease in the number of meth labs in Oregon, Mexican drug trafficking organizations are increasing imports into the state and dominating the transportation and distribution of meth, heroin, and cocaine in Oregon.
 
So far this year, the Jackson County Sheriff's Office has made 18 federal indictments. The Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office says it has two cases at the federal level.
 
Authorities say it takes a lot of leg work to arrest those running cartel gardens. Police say these workers spent a lot of time in the woods and can moved quickly through the brush.