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Sheriff busts marijuana field on Gaviota Coast

By COLBY FRAZIER — July 23, 2010

The illicit, and often prolific, marijuana growing season in the Santa Barbara wilderness bared itself yesterday when narcotics agents ripped up 5,800 young pot plants from a rugged canyon east of Mariposa Reina on the Gaviota Coast.

The plants, worth an estimated $5.7 million, were growing on private property, said Drew Sugars, a sheriff department spokesman. However, he stressed that the property owner was unaware of the illegal marijuana field, and no arrests were made.

“There was evidence that the people tending the grow had been living there, but no one was present when law enforcement arrived,” Sugars said in a news release announcing the bust.

Over the past several years, the sheriff’s department has eradicated hundreds of thousands of marijuana plants from the Santa Barbara County backcountry.

The illegal operations are known for their often-sophisticated irrigation systems, heavily armed guards who are rarely, if ever, captured, booby traps and their harmful impact on the environment.

Authorities also say the illegal operations are often linked to violent Mexican drug cartels.

The illegal operations have been linked to two murders. And authorities said marijuana growers caused last year’s La Brea fire, which scorched 90,000 acres of rugged land near New Cuyama. Fire investigators said the marijuana growers’ camping stove sparked the blaze.

In 2009, the sheriff’s department stayed busy, busting 22 illegal growing operations in the backcountry, the most ever in a single year.

While the number of busts grew slightly — 25 percent over 2008 — their magnitude exploded. The sheriff’s department seized 238,338 marijuana plants from the backcountry last year, a 350 percent increase over the prior year.

With indoor seizures, authorities seized more than 240,000 plants, enough to provide a half a plant to every resident in the county, authorities said.

The 2009 crop had an estimated street value of nearly three quarters of a billion dollars, making it far and away the most lucrative cash crop in the county. By comparison, strawberries, the county’s No. 1 cash crop in 2009, grossed $344. 6 million, county agricultural reports show.

Comment on this article

captcha c41360abdf8e4206bbda1d5b409646fe

next year a whole plant to every resident in the county : 7/23/2010

Surprised they didn't seize the land they found the plants on. Must of been oil company or railroad land. Just think of all the lives that will be saved and environmental degradation that will be avoided when it becomes legal to grow in the back yard, not to mentions the millions in tax revenue. Too bad about the loss in cop hours though. They'll have to find a new way to get paid to chase their tails.

Please don't take my house because I smoke a joint


: 7/23/2010

you are an idiot


Great Job! : 7/23/2010

Thanks SBCo Sheriff's Dept ! Keep them out of our area...


hahahaha : 7/23/2010

next next year there will be even more!!!

remember remember November


They'll have to find a new way to get paid to chase their tails. : 7/23/2010

Actually that is one of the factors of the initial prohibition against marijuana. There was going to be a reduction in police force once the prohibition on alcohol was repealed.

sbcitizen


: 7/23/2010

THE PLANTS ARE CREATED BY GOD!
WHY WE KEEP DESTROYING NATURE?
WHAT IS ALCOHOL? TOBACCO? HOW MANY CHEMICALS IN THESE TWO?

YOU DESTROY NATURE, YOU ARE DESTROYING GOD


What you are REALLY destroying... : 7/23/2010

Is YOUR life... Get clean, live clean...be healthy!


I like how they state : 7/23/2010

The illegal operations are known for their often-sophisticated irrigation systems, heavily armed guards who are rarely, if ever, captured, booby traps and their harmful impact on the environment.
----yet none of these items where found, more propaganda


The ONLY HONEST statement made by the Sheriff's Department; : 7/23/2010

The 2009 crop had an estimated street value of nearly three quarters of a billion dollars, making it far and away the most lucrative cash crop in the county.
I wonder how much the state would have made if the crop was legal?
Marijuana makes strawberries look like look like an ugly red headed step child no one wants.
They had this problem in Chicago in the 1930's they were called back country distilleries, after legalization disappeared.


the gay that said your are an idiot : 7/23/2010

must have been a cop

agreed plants for everyone


Santa Barbara is all about saving nature : 7/23/2010

Yet the police destroyed a hole bunch of nature, Please stop hurting nature save the planet plant a plant

PLANTS HAVE THE RIGHT TO LIVE


Is YOUR life... Get clean, live clean...be healthy : 7/23/2010

I did thats why i use marijuana and i have pain and used large amounts of oxycontin a painkiller i have a lot of pain i was addicted to the pills. Marijuana has saved my life my doctor a higher up a cottage hospital is very proud of me and because you dont have pain in your life shows me your bias and less educated then most or do not have the research skills to look up what your talking about.


Any body with a plant : 7/23/2010

clone it and put it somewhere through out santa barbara city that gets watered in the planters downtown in the trees at the beach in the ditches and if you have some crappy stuff with seeds plant the seeds in the parks

you cant stop gods will of nature


Humans : 7/23/2010

Humans have enjoyed exploring different states of consciousness SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME. Good luck trying to convince every man, woman, and child on this planet that they should never consumer anything that ever changes the way they think or feel ever again. Well, the fascists tried/are trying.

Semma


I'm a grower, come get me!!!! : 7/23/2010

I have nice crop growing right now on bath street inside my apartment!!!!!

Pot Smoker


GO Prop 19 : 7/23/2010

shut down the cartels I.E. Look at the Italian MAFIA now after alcohol was legalized

VOTE YES IN NOV


Connection? : 7/23/2010

This MJ crop was not that far away from the burned body.

Violent child turned non-violent adult who says NO to drugs


The fire could have been mountain bike riders clearing brush : 7/23/2010

And apha dog was over weed


weak connection : 7/23/2010


: 7/24/2010

prop 19 will not pass and you are still an idiot


Prop 19 Vote Yes : 7/24/2010

July 15, 2010
California’s Proposition 19, which will legalize, regulate and tax marijuana, is currently winning, 50 percent yes to 40 percent no, according to a new SurveyUSA poll of likely voters sponsored by CBS 5 KPIX-TV.

http://www.taxcannabis.org/


All it take's is 51% vote yes prop 19 : 7/24/2010

Proposition 215 (HS 11362.5) was passed in 1996 by a 56% majority of California voters in November 1996. That is more California votes than Presidents Clinton, Bush or most other elected official have received.

http://www.hr95.org/Prop215.html


must be a control issue! : 7/24/2010

Did you say 750 million was made and you weren't even thinking of taxing it? Amazes me that "law enforcement" couldn't be any clearer on that concept....

Boycott Boy


I dont dout the cops are selling to the canibis clubs around here : 7/24/2010

When they bust a club for some reason all that marijuana i see it come in at a different club.
where does all that bud go?


Burn it!!! : 7/26/2010

A joint a day keeps the police away!


Smoke WEED EVERYDAY : 7/26/2010

Snoop Dogg


Read it and weep : 7/26/2010

Just a quick run thrugh the comments belong is enough to stop a clear headed thinker from advocating full legalization. Which one's Beavis?

Haile Selassie


WEED : 7/26/2010

The City of Oakland, CA has just approved large scale industrial grows.
Like booze once CORPORATIONS take control NOTHING WILL STOP IT. IT'S ABOUT MAKING HUGE PROFITS. However, it will still be regulated, and like booze there are already laws on the books for being under the influence in public or driving a car under the influence.
Legalization is only a matter of time.

Clear headed thinker and non smoker


Those cops are gettin high when they burn it : 7/27/2010

I watched this bust on the news and the cops that were burning the "evidence" were not wearing gas mask. I want that job trek through the woods with guns then steal the crop burn it and get HIGH AS A you know what, like i said the cops sell that crap too


only idots call others idots : 7/28/2010


issue hunting permits to kill growers : 7/30/2010

dead or alive, it doesn't matter. rid this beautiful area of this pestulence.

upinsmoke


issue hunting licenses to capture not kill growers : 7/30/2010

my bad. don't kill anybody, just capture them. hunters would have to be armed because the growers are. get rid of these guys.

upinsmoke


Im a cop... and : 7/30/2010

I think prohibition of marijuana is the biggest waste of time. I wish we could spend more tax payers money on catching child rapists, hard drugs, murders, ect. On the force for 17 years and i will vote to legalize marijuana. What happened when alcohol was illegalized, we created Al Capone. I will vote to legalize marijuana because I 100% believe that it will lower the rate of violence associated with weed and at the same time save tax payers dollars by keeping marijuana users out of jail, and hopefully we can focus on the real issues in life.


Measure P : 8/2/2010

To the cop. Thank you for your clear-headed comment. I wish more of your fellow officers were on the same page. After all, isn't enforcing marijuana use supposed to be the lowest priority of the City of Santa Barbara? The majority of voters voted that way. Yet these ridiculous raids and the intimidation of otherwise law-abiding citizens are going on. What agency is responsible and why? Feds?
Most citizens want to see law enforcement work against violent crime, or robbery, or aggressive pan handlers, or aggressive skate boarders that terrorize pedestrians on State Street, or gangs.

Common Sense


Last Few Comments : 8/2/2010

Not s opro Pot...not so against it either.... but geez people... Get a grip. Aplant per isn't a bad thing. Feeding illegal trade is violent and rediculous. you say pot is a peaceful drug(and has always been a positive in my life) but you speak with insult and anger trying to defend it. Wrong move KNUCKLEHEADS!! I think you can win more hearts a bit of a more passionate plea.... Think before you speak

Enuf Said


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