# Country dwellers fume over neighboring marijuana sites



## 7greeneyes (Aug 13, 2012)

url: h*MP*p://www.fresnobee.com/2012/08/12/2950160/country-dwellers-burn-up-over.html

*Country dwellers fume over neighboring marijuana sites *​

By Lewis Griswold The Fresno Bee 

Sunday, Aug. 12, 2012 | 09:54 PM Modified Mon, Aug 13, 2012 05:56 AM 

Carl and Maggie Huddleston's country home near Strathmore boasts a horse corral, fig tree, grape arbor and a view of the foothills.

But their view also includes a marijuana farm across the street that has turned their country dream into a nightmare.

"One of the things we're really concerned about is gunfire," said Maggie Huddleston, a nursing instructor at a private college who moved to the country six years ago.

It's a valid concern. A man guarding another marijuana grow site half a mile away was shot and killed last fall, a murder that still is unsolved.

Pot producers taking advantage of the state's medical marijuana law by growing an estimated 5 million marijuana plants on the San Joaquin Valley floor are encroaching on bucolic neighborhoods. 

Rural residents like the Huddlestons complain about funky smells, mysterious nighttime activities and loss of property values, and ask authorities why the grow sites are allowed to flourish.

Alfalfa grower Steve Petersen, whose farm southwest of Fresno is across from a former grow site that included menacing guard towers and people coming and going at all hours of the day and night, says authorities are too slow to act.

"I called the cops and I never saw any response," Petersen said. "They're up there in a $1,000-an-hour helicopter, why can't they come down and rip it out? It'll take 10 minutes."

State law allows medical marijuana for personal consumption, so investigators must find evidence that a cultivation is intended to be illegally sold before they can swoop in to rip out plants and make arrests, Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims said.

"We get to as many as we can," Mims said. "We can't do them all."

Until a few years ago, marijuana was grown almost exclusively in mountain hideaways. Not anymore.

About three years ago, grow sites began to sprout across the Valley floor; growers post medical marijuana recommendation letters from doctors and tell law enforcement they are caregivers growing for those too ill or unable to grow it themselves.

Those claims are met with deep suspicion. "Ninety-five percent are criminal operations," said Tulare County sheriff's Lt. Tom Sigley, who is in charge of that county's marijuana eradication efforts. "I have yet to see a legitimate caregiver."

Mims said law enforcement officials are stuck in the middle between Proposition 215 and criminals growing pot for the black market.

"It would be easy to pull plants, but the people of California voted the initiative in," Mims said. "It's morphed into something that's out of control."

State law allows people with a doctor's letter to grow marijuana; federal officials have said they won't investigate grows of fewer than 100 plants.

Drug traffickers compile dozens of medical marijuana recommendation letters and post them next to rows of marijuana plants, so even a suspiciously large grow requires a time-consuming investigation of a month or longer to get search warrants for a raid, said Fresno County sheriff's Lt. Rick Ko, who oversees marijuana eradication.

The enforcement process starts with letters sent to property owners, warning that their property could be seized under federal law unless the pot plants are destroyed.

In Fresno County, about half who get the letter comply; in Tulare County, it's about 70%, officials said.

Still, the rural grows continue and residents worry that their neighbors could be linked to drug cartels.
"Absolutely, people are afraid," Ko said. The department gets six or seven complaints a day, he said.​


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## 7greeneyes (Aug 13, 2012)

Officials say they have identified on the Valley floor about 150 grow sites in Fresno County and 300 in Tulare County.

From San Joaquin to Kern counties, an estimated 5 million to 8 million plants are under cultivation, said Bill Ruzzamenti, chief of the federal Central Valley High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.

The lure is money. A pound of high-grade marijuana sells on the street for $1,500 in California and up to $6,000 out of state, Ko said. One plant can yield a pound of processed marijuana; if pot were a crop, it'd be worth $19 million an acre compared to $4 million for an acre of grapes, the Fresno County Sheriff's Department said.

Tulare County Supervisor Allen Ishida said marijuana cultivation is sweeping through the county's rural areas.

"It's the No. 1 complaint I get," Ishida said. "They are worried about the crime that comes with it." 

 Eight homicides were connected to marijuana grows last year in Tulare County, the Sheriff's Department said. Four were at grow sites. A 16-year-old Sanger teen was killed in April after attempting to steal marijuana from a grow site but his body has not been found. Madera and Kings counties report no grow site-connected murders.

Weapons often are found at busts. Since January in Tulare County, 47 guns were seized at 68 busts.

Neighbors say the grow sites aren't just a public safety problem -- their property values are getting hammered.

"I hate it," said Michael Pavone, a neighbor of the Huddlestons. "The first thing people are going to see is a pot farm across the street."

"I'm told I'm devalued another 20% because of a grow across the street," Carl Huddleston said.
From their homes, Pavone and the Huddlestons can see outdoor enclosures of solid plywood, chain link and cloth, with white netting poking skyward like tent tops behind the fencing.

A rural home next door to a "plywood grow" is a turnoff for buyers, said Patty Decker, a real estate agent in Woodlake who specializes in rural residential properties.

"A family person doesn't want to put his family in harm's way," Decker said. "They look at it and say, 'I don't want this.' "

To bust pot growers who claim to be legal but are suspected to be operating a criminal enterprise, sheriffs and police have been teaming up with the Drug Enforcement Administration. 

Even though medical marijuana is legal in California, growing any amount is illegal under federal law.

Ko said virtually all of the busts in Fresno County involve the federal government.
Recent raids under Operation Mercury, a collaborative effort among six San Joaquin Valley sheriff's departments, district attorneys' offices and the DEA, include:

-- A site directly across the road from Central Unified's newly opened Glacier Point Middle School west of Highway 99 last month netting 385 plants and two arrests.
-- A 20,000-plant haul in eastern Madera County in July.
-- A bust near Alpaugh in Tulare County that netted 4,000 plants and eight arrests, including three from Mexico.
-- A grow of 959 plants near Mendota on Friday.
-- A site in Three Rocks in western Fresno County netting 700 plants -- some as tall as 12 feet high -- in July.
-- A bust south of Kettleman City in Kings County that seized 1,000 plants and made two arrests, including a Mexican national.

The Huddlestons say they still are waiting for a raid. They hoped for one last year, but the marijuana growers harvested one night in mid-August and then removed the fence. But they're back this year.

"We see the sheriff's drive by, I know they see it. But I don't know why they don't do anything," Maggie Huddleston said.

The Sheriff's Department is fully aware of the grow site, said Tulare County sheriff's Capt. Mike Boudreaux. The site is actually three adjacent grows, he said. One appears legitimate under California law but the other two are under investigation as potential criminal enterprises, he said.

"We completely understand the frustration of those in the community who believe they are flagrantly violating the law," Boudreaux said. The Tulare County Sheriff's Department shuts down two or three sites a week, he said.

Marybel Gonzalez, who lives on five acres north of Strathmore and can see a grow site from the corner of her property, said helicopters -- she assumes they are from law enforcement -- fly over the neighborhood almost daily. Her nose will tell her when a pot farm is close to harvest time.

"In the summer, you can smell it at dusk," Gonzalez said. "I call it 'body odor.' "


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