Sequoia grower gets 8 years for 16,000-plant forest operation
Victor Alfonso Madrigal Cardenas was sentenced to eight years and one month in prison for a 16,000-plant grow in the Sequoia National Forest, with 850 pounds of processed cannabis and a revolver seized. He was one of nine men indicted in 2011 for the Sentinel Peak cultivation site.
🇺🇸 Sentinel Peak area, Sequoia National Forest, Tulare County · California, United States
On 8 July 2013 Victor Alfonso Madrigal Cardenas, 26, of Delano was sentenced to eight years and one month in prison for a large-scale grow in the Sentinel Peak area of the Sequoia National Forest in Tulare County.[1]He was also ordered to pay USD 3,686.54 in restitution to the U.S. Forest Service for cleanup and faces deportation to Mexico after serving his term.[1]
Madrigal had pleaded guilty after California Department of Justice Campaign Against Marijuana Planting agents joined the investigation.[1]His operation caused extensive damage to land and natural resources, with native vegetation cut to make room for the plants and trash and fertilizer containers littering the camp and a flowing stream.[2][1]
The case began with an eight-count federal indictment handed down in October 2011 against nine central California men for the Sentinel Peak site.[2]Investigators had seized some 16,000 marijuana plants, more than 850 pounds of processed marijuana and three firearms including an assault rifle, while a later account of Madrigal’s own site cites more than 16,000 plants, 1,100 pounds of processed marijuana and a .38 caliber revolver.[2][1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
The 850 pounds of processed cannabis converts to about 385.55 kg.
Sources give different processed-cannabis totals (more than 850 pounds in the 2011 indictment account and 1,100 pounds in the 2013 sentencing account); the figures use the 850-pound site total.
Outcomes for the eight co-defendants indicted alongside Madrigal were not published in the opened sources.
Available images could not be verified as showing this operation.
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