THORNTON - Wardens with the California
Department of Fish and Game spent the weekend cleaning up a major
illegal marijuana field in a wildlife refuge along the Sacramento/San
Joaquin county line.
The pot bust netted thousands of mature plants, tons of garbage and one arrest.
Fifteen
game wardens from throughout the region spent 12 hours Sunday cutting
down 2,000 marijuana plants in the Cosumnes River Preserve near New Hope
Road and Bear Slough, roughly three miles northeast of Thornton and
just inside Sacramento County.
The biologically diverse refuge, one of the
last natural areas in the Central Valley, is home to 250 birds, more
than 40 fish species and 230 unique plants.
"We
are going to have to get some contract help in here to completely
mitigate the field," department spokesman Andrew Hughan said Monday,
referring to the thousands of remaining marijuana plants and debris left
behind by the 12 to 15 growers, who fled the area Saturday when law
enforcement arrived.
The arrest came when a
warden walking on a trail into the site surprised a man carrying a
shotgun. The warden drew his service weapon and arrested the man,
identified as Oscar Javier Palomino Ocegueda, 29, of Vallejo. He was
taken into custody without incident.
Hughan
said the field of marijuana came to the department's attention when a
game warden on routine patrol late Thursday night saw a parked vehicle
on New Hope Road near Orr Road. He watched the vehicle drive away, then
conducted a traffic stop and saw farm implements in the vehicle.
"He
let the suspect go but assumed there was a marijuana grow in the area,"
Hughan said. "Water is the key. If you have water, everything else can
be accomplished."
What the wardens saw
Saturday when they descended on the area about two miles from the
nearest road were multiple campsites set up for six to eight months
worth of living, with fuel, chemicals, fertilizer, four generators and
lots of food and camping gear.
"This is
certainly significant for the Sacramento Valley. It's one of the largest
marijuana grows we have found in several years," Hughan said.
"We
were very lucky as far as environmental damage. We were very pleased to
find very minimal environmental damage - some buckets in the waterway
and a small amount of fertilizer, but very minimal. As for environmental
damage to animals, we saw some dead mice and rabbits that had been
poached, but no real damage to wildlife, and nobody got hurt."
Officers
from the Galt Police Department and Sacramento and San Joaquin
sheriff's offices provided backup assistance, and the California Highway
Patrol helicopter used a large sling net to haul away debris to a
secure location with access for a dump truck, Hughan said.
Contact reporter Joe Goldeen at (209) 546-8278 or jgoldeen@recordnet.com. Visit his blog at recordnet.com/goldeenblog.
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