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Pot season far from over
Colusa County Sun-Herald
Even with two arrests and more than 50,000 marijuana plants destroyed in August, the job of the Colusa County multi-agency narcotics task force is far from over this season.
Illegal marijuana operators are nearing the peak of their summer marijuana harvest, and law enforcement officials are trying to weed out the worst offenders, authorities said Friday.
Task force officers raided five marijuana gardens in August, four of which were large grows in the Mendocino National Forest, according to Colusa County sheriff's Lt. Shane Maxey.
On Aug. 5, an early morning raid of a garden at Cold Creek, off Goat Mountain Road, resulted in the confiscation of 4,971 marijuana plants and the arrest of two Mexican nationals.
One of the two men arrested surrendered to authorities with out incident; the other reportedly rushed a law enforcement officer and was "Tased," Maxey said. The stunned man was taken to Colusa Regional Medical Center for clearance, and then booked in the Colusa County Jail on marijuana cultivation charges.
On Aug. 9, task force officials raided a large garden on Snow Mountain, netting 24,335 plants, the largest in county history, Maxey said.
The following morning, another 5,278 plants were removed from a garden just south Letts Lake.
On Thursday, task force officers raided a garden in the Live Oak area off Goat Mountain Road.
At that site, several growers believed to be Mexican nationals ran from law enforcement officers and disappeared into the forest — as the task force entered the garden — leaving behind 1,665 fully grown plants, 35 pounds of harvested and processed marijuana, one riffle and one shotgun.
"Fortunately they ran instead of choosing to defend (the garden) with a gun fight," Maxey said.
In addition to the four forest operations, the task force on Tuesday raided a small, 130 plant marijuana operation on Butte Slough Road.
Maxey said the raid was the result of a tip, and the operation also is believed to be the work of Mexican nationals.
Maxey did not have a total street value of the plants confiscated, but said each pound of processed marijuana could net the growers up to $2,000 from the illegal sale of the drug.
