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Thread ID: 19689 | Posts: 1 | Started: 2005-08-17
2005-08-17 06:42 | User Profile
"Wetback" marijuana plantation found in Coconino National Forest AZ.
Huge pot-growing operation busted
Aug. 16, 2005 04:41 PM
The Arizona Republic
FLAGSTAFF - A detention hearing in U.S. District Court is scheduled for Thursday for four illegal immigrants from Mexico arrested in what law officers said was one of the largest marijuana growing busts in the Southwest.
State and federal agents arrested Jesus Castillo-Melendres, Gerardo Manzo-Pulido, Oscar Nuñez-Medina and David Valencia-Gonzalez, ages unknown, on Monday in the Calf Pen Canyon area of Coconino National Forest near the community of Strawberry.
According to federal court documents, the suspects were cultivating an estimated 3,000 marijuana plants as law officers observed their movements for the past six weeks.
Valencia-Gonzalez told officers that he had been hired to cultivate the field by a family member of a smuggler, with whom he had entered the country, to pay off his smuggling debt.
The court documents noted that Nunez-Medina was seen Aug. 11 in the marijuana field with camouflage clothing and an assault rifle
[url]http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0816Pot-Bust-ON.html[/url]