After a four-month investigation, Siskiyou County sheriff’s deputies raided marijuana gardens in the Scott Bar, Scott River and Salmon River areas in operations culminating on 11 September 2004, seizing 13,000 plants valued at more than $2.6 million and making several arrests.[1] County officials identified four of those arrested as members of the Sacramento-based Lua family drug organization, held on federal warrants for conspiracy to cultivate marijuana: Paublo Augilar, 29, Omar Lua Zaragoza, 23, Rafael Lua Valencia, 23, and Manual Lua Zaragoza, 25, all from Sacramento.[1][2]

Officers had carried out five raids since March, finding two assault weapons including a 9mm submachine gun, three rifles and about 1,000 rounds of ammunition, along with several pounds of processed marijuana, wire-transfer records and $1,800 in cash.[1] The gardens held living quarters, irrigation lines and drying racks; at Middle Creek near Scott Bar, suspects harvesting a garden fled into the hills, and helicopter crews spotted one of them, identified as Zaragoza, who was chased down and caught.[1] Federal, state and local officers had tracked the organization from Sacramento to the Oregon border with satellite trackers, ground surveillance and telephone records.[1] On 22 September the US Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of California took the case to a federal grand jury, with indictments of all suspects expected.[1]