Glenn County Court

Indictments handed down in forest pot raid

The first indictments from the massive six-county marijuana raid in the Mendocino National Forest were announced Thursday by the U.S. Attorney's Office

A federal grand jury returned a one-count indictment charging Agustin Pena-Contreras, 25, and Nemecio Garcia-Alcazar, 22, both citizens of Mexico, with cultivating marijuana plants in Tehama County, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported.

Several illegal gardens have been raided as part of Operation Full Court Press in Tehama County.

Pena-Contreras and Garcia-Alcazar are believed to be connected to a smaller marijuana plot that was raided July 18.

Agents eradicated 2,296 marijuana plants from three sites that were connected by well-worn paths in the Mendocino National Forest. The defendants were arrested in the third plot, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported.

If convicted, the defendants face a maximum sentence of 10 years to life in prison.

About a dozen people have been arrested and 12,000 marijuana plants destroyed following a raid earlier this week in the Glenn County area of the Mendocino National Forest.

Exact numbers were not immediately available Thursday, but officials confirmed the raid occurred late Tuesday in the remote wilderness of western Glenn County.

Authorities have been combing the mountain side looking for multiple suspects who fled the area that same day. Officials said a group of men fled on foot following a traffic stop near the scene of the raid a short time later.

Several have been taken into custody and more arrests are expected, authorities said. It is not clear if all those arrested in the mountains this week are believed to be connected to either the marijuana grow site or any organized drug traffickers.

The raid was part of the nearly month-long operation targeting marijuana gardens on public lands in the forest.

To date, the operation has resulted in the eradication of more than 500,000 marijuana plants at 73 locations, according to the state Department of Justice.

California Marijuana Eradication Evokes Secrecy, Military | NewsTaco

Willows, California — Close your eyes, you nosy reporters and citizens. The helicopters and hundreds of officers spread out over the North State don’t exist, according to a score of public information officers.

The massive six-county paramilitary commercial marijuana eradication effort called “Operation Full Court Press,” which was publicly announced in Ukiah in December, is believed by confidential sources to involve more than 450 officers, many military helicopters, untold numbers of police vehicles, military command and control wiring, and scores of support personnel.

Meanwhile, as the huge, highly secret operation got underway, Glenn County hunters and outdoorsmen report being stopped without cause while merely driving their pickups through the forest. This is according to 60ish Anglos who asked that their names be withheld for fear of retaliation.

“They turned on the red light and demanded to know what we were doing in the forest,” said one man, nearly elderly, a deer hunter up with friends, scouting.

The Mirror contacted agency after agency, including the U.S. Forest Service, Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Bureau of Land Management, California Department of Fish and Game and the California Department of Justice, which is ostensibly in control. Only of public information officers contacted returned phone messages: John Heil of the Vallejo office of the U.S. Forest Service Southwest Region headquarters, who took our list of questions but referred us to California Department of Justice Special Agent Michelle Gregory, who is the sole spokesperson for Operation Full Court press. Neither of the two National Guard spokeswomen on the ground would speak to us.

Special Agent Michelle Gregory said all information was “embargoed,” and would not say by what individuals, only all the agencies. She would not release the number of helicopters, costs or any other information. Even the existence, location and signers of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) — a mandatory document for an interagency project such as this — remained secret.

The tight news control – and most of the press has been complaisant or blind — extended even to the name of the mission, “Operation Full Court Press.” Mission commanders apparently believed that by not speaking of the operation, the Mexican drug cartels who run the big grows would not know they are coming, which is like ignoring a tsunami of law enforcement in the area.

The Pacific reporter

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