cbs13.com October 30, 2006
Attorney
general Bill Lockyear says it's not that the number of pot farms is up, but that
their crackdown is working. This season, agents uprooted nearly 1.7 million
plants, smoking last year's record.
Helicopters and armed agents swarmed hillsides and turned pot farms this summer.
In mid-August authorities found more than 4,000 plants in Eastern El Dorado
County, some along hiking trails and near high end homes.
In early September agents found 4,000 plants on private land in El Dorado
County, the owner didn't know was there. The state says these discoveries are
the result of ramping up their camp program, Campaign Against Marijuana
Planting.
They carried out 477 raids in 34 counties during the traditional growing season
which ends in early October.
Last year agents found more than 1.1 million plants, this year nearly 1.7 an
increase of more than half million pot plants.
Officers also made 27 arrests and seized 29 weapons - and that's what makes
these operations so scary. In almost all of these cases, agents told us they
found ammunition and campsites, meaning people were protecting the grows.
Authorities say seizures have increased because of camp teams hitting the hills,
advances in aerial technology and larger garden sizes. As agents eradicate
garden after garden, the state says it's the number of pot farms being wiped out
that will continue to grow.
-- read more --
