Pubdate: Fri, 28 Sep 2012
Source: Press Democrat, The (Santa Rosa, CA)
Copyright: 2012 The Press Democrat
Contact:  http://www.pressdemocrat.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/348
Author: Mary Callahan

AUTHORITIES: 1,150 MARIJUANA PLANTS, WEAPONS, CASH SEIZED IN SANTA ROSA RAID

Sonoma County sheriff's officials, still sifting through reports and 
findings from a massive raid on home marijuana gardens in southwest 
Santa Rosa, said Thursday that authorities yanked a total 1,150 
plants weighing more than 15,000 pounds in Wednesday's daylong operation.

Ninety-six pounds of processed marijuana, worth about $2,000 a pound 
on the street, also were confiscated, Sonoma County Sheriff's Lt. 
Dennis O'Leary said.

The total value of the pot seized likely exceeded $2.5 million by 
that accounting.

Officers also recovered a half-pound of cocaine, five grams of 
methamphetamine, six firearms -- including a rifle with a silencer -- 
and more than $20,000 in cash during the multi-agency effort to rid 
one neighborhood of what authorities said were gardens at a large 
majority of the homes.

"Literally every backyard in that neighborhood, except for maybe half 
a dozen, all had grows in them," Lt. Dennis O'Leary said.

About 150 law enforcement personnel in protective gear swooped down 
on the neighborhood south of Corby and Bellevue avenues, targeting 
modest homes along four connected streets between the railroad tracks 
and Moorland Avenue.

O'Leary said 33 search warrants were served, and 15 people were 
arrested on a variety of drug-related charges in the raid, which 
involved the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Department of 
Homeland Security, CHP, Santa Rosa police and Sonoma County sheriff's 
deputies, as well as personnel from the county probation and district 
attorney's offices.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom