Armando Vargas Garcia and Eduardo Montero Aleman, both Mexican nationals aged 38, were each sentenced to 21 months in prison on 5 November 2020 for conspiring to cultivate marijuana in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.[1] U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley also ordered them to pay $34,931 in restitution for the damage their grow caused to the land.[1]
According to court documents, the pair cultivated 8,656 marijuana plants in the Big Mountain area, near the south fork of Big Creek, between 29 August and 5 September 2019.[1][2] Officers found two compound archery bows, nine arrows, 42 rounds of hollow-point .22-calibre ammunition and bottles of carbofuran, a pesticide banned in the United States, at the site.[1]
Raid and damage
The grow was raided on 5 September 2019 by officers from the Trinity County Sheriff’s Office, the U.S. Forest Service and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, with a K-9 that helped apprehend Vargas Garcia while other officers caught Montero Aleman.[2] Alongside the growing plants, officers seized 232 pounds (about 105 kilograms) of processed marijuana.[2] A scientist at the scene found 840 pounds of soluble fertiliser, thousands of pounds of rubbish and piping diverting thousands of gallons of water a day.[2] The case was investigated by the Forest Service, the sheriff’s department, Fish and Wildlife and the Trinity County District Attorney’s Office, and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Adrian T. Kinsella.[1]
