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Narcotic agents sift through poisons while pulling plants

Madera County Sheriff's Department

(Updated: Thursday, June 25, 2009, 6:29 PM)

Operation "Summer Harvest" proved to be a vexing mission recently near Bass Lake, for agents with the Madera County Narcotic Enforcement Team, Madera County Sheriff's Deputies and the Regional SWAT Team.

"Never mind the plant count," says Sheriff John Anderson, "what agents also have to contend with are mounds of deadly chemicals found strewn about the gardens and streams."

Anderson says evidence found in the gardens indicates they were planted by people associated with drug cartels.

As with every mission, MADNET continues to find pesticides, herbicides, poisons and fertilizer -- all toxic ingredients that threaten the delicate eco-system. Garbage and human waste littered the campsite found tucked between a trio of gardens hidden in the Sierra National Forest.

Once the season ends, U.S. Forest Service volunteers will have to go into all of these sites and begin the arduous task of removing the debris and begin restoration.

Anderson says a number of gardens that are restored continue to be destroyed. Activity in a marijuana garden last year was responsible for a wildfire in North Fork. Within days after the fire was put out, growers moved back in to that exact location and planted again.

Anderson says operations like the one carried out near Bass Lake are vital to Madera County's on-going battle with organized crime. Evidence of poaching is often found, along with contaminants dumped in the streams.

"The traffickers smuggle in hundreds of undocumented workers who unleash mass quantities of illegal agricultural chemicals banned long ago in the United States."

He says the surge in organized drug trafficking is due in large measure to Mexican drug cartels adapting to increased border security since Sept. 11.

The recent marijuana eradication is the third operation this season. The total number of plants destroyed was 4,166.