Ventura County sheriff’s investigators found nearly 68,500 cannabis plants in several large plots on the north slope of Pine Mountain in Los Padres National Forest, north of Ojai, east of Highway 33 and south of Lockwood Valley Road.[1][2] The sheriff’s department called it the single largest cultivation ever seized in the county, with an estimated street value of 205,464,000 dollars.[1][2] Sheriff’s spokesperson Sgt. Mike Horne said investigators believed a Mexican drug cartel financed and ran the operation.[1]
Working with the Ventura County Fire Department, the district attorney’s office and the United States Forest Service, sheriff’s units destroyed the plants on 13 July.[1] Investigators airlifted into the mountain sites found camps with several hundred pounds of equipment, including tents, propane stoves, sleeping bags, fertilisers, pesticides and large amounts of rubbish.[1][2] Detectives found a 9mm handgun, a .22-calibre rifle and ammunition for other handguns and rifles, alongside evidence of poaching from deer and small-animal remains near the camps.[1][2]
Water damage and clearances
Growers had terraced wide swaths of hillside, removed underbrush and diverted water from its natural course into tarp-lined reservoirs, feeding the plots through gravity irrigation lines and thousands of feet of hose.[1][2] Bags of fertiliser, pesticides and poisons were found in each cultivation area.[1]
