Pubdate: Fri, 23 Sep 2005
Source: Press Democrat, The (Santa Rosa, CA)
Copyright: 2005 The Press Democrat
Contact:  http://www.pressdemo.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/348
Author: Mike Geniella, Press Democrat
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)

POT RAID LEADS TO ARREST OF SR MAN

Authorities Believe Suspect Linked With Mexican Drug Cartel

UKIAH - Evidence seized during a major marijuana raid in northern 
Mendocino County has led to the arrest of a Santa Rosa man suspected 
of having ties to a Mexican drug cartel.

Isaac Maldonado, 26, is in custody in Mendocino County Jail, facing 
charges of cultivation and possession of marijuana for sale.

Maldonado was tracked down after local, state and federal agents last 
week raided a series of gardens in the remote Red Mountain Creek area 
near Piercy.

Sgt. Rusty Noe of the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office marijuana 
team said about 7,700 maturing plants were found, along with $195,000 
in cash at two different sites.

"We have reason to believe he (Maldonado) was overseeing the 
operation on behalf of Mexican nationals," Noe said. He said more 
arrests are expected.

Noe said several camps were found in the area, suggesting that as 
many as eight individuals were living on site. Two vehicles also were found.

Noe's local pot squad, along with a team from the state Campaign 
Against Marijuana Planting, assisted in the raids, which were part of 
a federal Bureau of Land Management investigation into the large 
marijuana growing operation.

Noe said the scale of the Mendocino marijuana operation underscores 
the change in North Coast dope growing from 'mom-and-pop' operations 
of two decades ago to large commercial ventures that increasingly are 
being linked to drug cartels south of the border.

In July, authorities found two sophisticated drug operations in the 
Austin Creek State Recreation Area of Sonoma County. One garden 
yielded 23,650 plants. About 21,000 plants were found in a second 
garden nearby.

Statewide, marijuana seizures this year are breaking records, with 
another month to go before harvest of the illicit weed winds down.

State Attorney General Bill Lockyer on Tuesday announced that state 
agents have yanked more than a million pot plants from growers' 
gardens, nearly 400,000 more than in 2004.

Lockyer said the uprooted marijuana would have been worth $4 billion 
if it had been sold on the streets.

Pot seizures in Sonoma and Mendocino already have surpassed 100,000 
plants each. Nearly 90,000 plants have been found so far in Napa 
County. Together, the total in the three neighboring counties 
represents about 30 percent of the statewide production.
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MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman