Federal, state and local officers eradicated 25,000 marijuana plants from five grow operations on federal land in the Tonto National Forest in Arizona during the 2007 growing season.[1] The U.S. Attorney’s Office announced the operation on 1 November 2007, saying the crop had an approximate street value of $50 million and that 17 people had been arrested, with federal charges filed against 18 people and one suspect still at large.[1]
The gardens lay in remote areas off normal trails near Maple Springs, Pigeon Springs, Promontory Butte, See Springs, Gold Creek Canyon and Hinton Canyons, with supply routes running through Maricopa County.[1] Paid crews lived and worked in the gardens for days or months at a time while others re-supplied them with food, tools, fertilizer and irrigation tubing.[1] The investigation was run by the Gila County Narcotics Task Force with the U.S. Forest Service, the DEA and the Phoenix Police Department.[1]
Javier Mendoza-Cuevas, 34, of Phoenix, supervised at least two of the gardens; when those two were eradicated, agents counted and destroyed over 16,000 plants, arrested four workers and recovered two firearms.[2] He pleaded guilty on 28 May 2008 to conspiracy to cultivate marijuana on national forest lands, and Judge Susan R. Bolton sentenced him to 144 months in federal prison on 15 December 2008, the last of eleven defendants sentenced in the 2007 garden cases.[2] The ten others received terms ranging from 18 to 120 months.[2]
