$28 million pot farm uprooted near Malibu

Article Launched: 09/28/2005 12:00:00 AM

$28 million pot farm uprooted near Malibu
By Susan Abram, Staff Writer

MALIBU CREEK STATE PARK - Calling it the largest single seizure of a marijuana crop in local history, Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies Tuesday ripped out thousands of plants - with a street value of $28 million - from remote Malibu canyons.

The bumper crop, nourished by abundant water sources from record rainfall this season, contained an estimated 28,700 plants over half a square mile.

Deputies with the Marijuana Enforcement Team were tipped off to the massive crop, but no arrests were made and they found no sign of encampments.

A water line connected to a pond had been installed to irrigate the crop.

The plants, most of them 6 feet tall, were just a week or two away from harvesting and grew deep into the canyons of the park, about a mile south of Malibu Lake near Crags Drive.

"This is the sixth illegal growth we've found this year, but so far this is the largest single growth in MET's (14-year) history," said Lt. Pete Fosselman. "The deputies that were up there said in one or two weeks, it would have all been harvested and gone."

Deputies packed the plants into 200-pound bundles and hauled them out of the canyons. They noted that many of the buds, the most valuable part of the plant, had already been removed by the growers.

"In the entire Santa Monica (Mountains) range, there is prime real estate for people to grow marijuana," said Sgt. Ken Davidson, narcotics detective for the Lost Hills-Malibu Station.

Authorities say growers have expanded operations over the years and have moved from indoor cultivating to planting in remote areas on public land. This year's rainfalls have produced more running creeks, which makes it easier for growers to install irrigation systems to the plants, Davidson said.

Before Tuesday's confiscation, a total of 42,000 marijuana plants had been seized by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department this year, including in the Angeles National Forest.

Drug enforcement officials say growers have moved onto public lands more readily, able to access sophisticated irrigation systems. And the businesses are becoming more sophisticated, said Jose Martinez, spokesman for the Los Angeles Bureau of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

"We're seeing larger growths on public lands because there are more people who are growing it diligently," Martinez said. "The other problem is the voracious appetite of the public. We're seeing more people grow


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it, for more money and more profit."

Last year, 14,000 marijuana plants were found in a remote spot of the Angeles National Forest near Gorman. Five men were arrested. The pot was found during air patrols, forest officials had said.

Marijuana plantations are not unusual in the Angeles Forest - about 40,000 plants were found in 2003 near La Caada Flintridge and destroyed.

Police say California forest marijuana cultivation is also booming under the influence of Mexican drug cartels, who hire illegal immigrants to tend the pot farms. Marijuana is planted during April through early June, and harvested in September and October, police say. Fosselman said growers are typically armed and dangerous.

As the massive crops proliferate, law enforcement officials say there are not enough resources, such as aerial surveillance crews, available throughout the summer months when marijuana is at its peak.

"For every seizure that we get, there's several we don't know about," Davidson, of the Lost Hills Station, said. "We come across growths of several thousand plants, but it's hit and miss a lot. Sometimes people go hiking and find it and tell us about it. Other times we do a flyover, but it's more about luck. We do not have a team dedicated for the summer months when it is at its peak."

Fosselman said investigators would continue to comb the area for nearby encampments.

"Our first objective is to get all the plants out of here, remove the irrigation lines, and restore the area to its natural state," he said.

Since the MET was formed in 1991, the most plants seized by the task force in a year was 80,000. Last year, the total was about 40,000. This year, already at 70,000, could turn out to be the most ever, Fosselman said.

Susan Abram, (818) 713-3664

susan.abram [at] dailynews.com