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| Massive Pot Farm in Hills Discovered |
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Posted by FoM on September 23, 2000 at 15:24:11 PT By Jim Herron Zamora of The Examiner Staff Source: San Francisco Examiner 
From 100 feet in the air, it's just another steep hillside covered with madrone, manzanita and cedar. But if the sun is right, you can just barely see the thousands of emerald green marijuana stalks lurking underneath the canopy. "That shade of green gives it away," said Gabe Escovedo of the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting. "Pot is the only thing up here that gets any water in September." Escovedo and his 15-man team thought they would be lucky to discover a couple thousand plants Monday. Instead, they were shocked to find the biggest known pot farm in San Mateo County: 11,800-plants on San Francisco watershed land. A CAMP-contracted helicopter dropped officers into the garden using a 150-foot line. The first thing they noticed was the smell. The pot plants were all females with gooey red-green buds, oozing with THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. "This is sweet stuff," said Dan Schillaci, a San Carlos police officer who bought drugs undercover before joining CAMP. "This garden is worth millions and millions on the streets of San Francisco." The value was estimated at $45 million and investigators believe the growers probably invested less than $20,000 for irrigation pipe, seeds and fertilizer, and labor costs. The growers disappeared into the woods before cops landed. But they left their camp site, breakfast tortillas still cooking on a Coleman gas stove. About 100 feet from the garden in a grove of cedars, growers built a two-story tree house by lashing madrone logs together. In camp, they had a 50-pound bag of flour, a tortilla press, a large bag of dried jalapeno peppers, cooking oil and "Abuelita" -- a popular Mexican chocolate for cocoa, cookies for snacks. A plastic image of Mexico's patron saint, Our Lady of Guadalupe, was attached to a tree. Along with sleeping bags, there were porn magazines, hundreds of empty Budweiser cans and empty food containers. "These guys were all set," Schillaci said. "They hiked all this crap in here. You know they've been here a while." The pot farm is high in the San Mateo County hills, about 2 miles west of the Pulgas Water Temple at Crystal Springs Reservoir. There are stunning views of The Bay and Mount Diablo. The property is off-limits to the public, so unlike pot farms in national forests or range lands, the growers had little fear of hikers or hunters stumbling into their stash. From Interstate 280, the hills look like a mass of green, brown and gold vegetation. But there is a variety of thick woods that hasn't been logged for decades. Police were tipped off to the farm in August by a water district ranger who saw black plastic irrigation pipe while hiking. He followed the pipe, crawling several hundred feet down from a spring to the edge of a pot field. The unarmed ranger noted the location, then retreated for fear of alerting the growers. The ranger did not realize the size of the farm. Veteran CAMP investigators estimated the garden was two or three years old at least. That would mean the organized crime group that is believed to be backing the growers has already made millions from the farm. Members of the CAMP high-fived at the size of Monday's bust. But their glee was tempered by the knowledge that somewhere else -- possibly in those same hills -- there are other farms that escaped detection. Source: San Francisco Examiner (CA) Related Articles: Record Drug Bust Near San Mateo County Reservoir Madera Cultivates Millions in Pot Haul Pot Warrior 1,700 Foothill Marijuana Plants Seized Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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Comment #3 posted by EdC on September 24, 2000 at 05:27:11 PT:
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That's prohibition at work. Actually, The plant is free. It would grow up through the cracks in the San Francisco sidewalks if these clowns would just leave it alone.
Cannabis is less addictive than coffee and has never killed a single person in all of recorded history. These CAMP warriors should think of that as they toast one another in celebration of their courage in the war against a plant.
| Comment #2 posted by Edelweisspiraten on September 24, 2000 at 04:48:30 PT |
Have you seen her all in gold?
Like a queen in days of old
She shoots colors all around
Like a sunset going down
Have you seen a lady fairer?
She comes in colors everywhere
She combs her hair
She's like a rainbow
Combing colors in the air
Oh, everywhere
She comes in colors
She's like a rainbow
Combing colors in the air
Oh, everywhere
She comes in colors
| Comment #1 posted by Frank S. World on September 23, 2000 at 20:48:51 PT |
Guess the growers need to do a little genetic engineering to make the plants blend in better!
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