1,200 Marijuana Plants Dug Up in N. County Raid

About 1,200 marijuana plants were seized in a raid at a remote North County avocado farm Saturday as federal agents in San Diego got a head start on a nationwide crackdown on marijuana growing.

The farm’s foreman and another man were arrested in connection with the raid, in which 17 agents pulled up the two- to three-foot plants by hand, said Ron D’Ulisse, a special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration. He said if the plants had been allowed to grow to full height they each would have produced more than a pound of marijuana, commanding a total market price of about $2.4 million.

“In San Diego County, I can’t recall when we’ve had a plantation that big,” D’Ulisse said. Raids more often produce 400 to 500 plants, he said, adding that about 12,000 marijuana plants were seized in San Diego County during last year’s growing season.

Narcotics Task Force investigators identified the growing site of the plants, which were too small to be spotted from the air, D’Ulisse said.

He said about 80 plants were seized last year at the same farm, located at the end of De Luz Road about a mile south of the Riverside County line. There were no arrests made then.

D’Ulisse said the plants were found growing on the edge of a ravine and were hooked up to the farm’s irrigation system by a camouflaged hose. He said agents also discovered an excavation where they believe the farm foreman planned to build a hothouse for the cultivation of marijuana seeds.

The DEA identified those who were arrested as Gregory Ahlquist, 37, the ranch foreman, and Gary Faught, 31. D’Ulisse said the pair, who both said they lived on the farm, were arrested on suspicion of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute it and of conspiracy to possess marijuana. They were taken to the Metropolitan Correctional Center. The owner of the farm died recently and neither he nor his wife was involved, D’Ulisse said.

The raid came on the eve of a coordinated effort by law enforcement officials to raid marijuana fields across the country. Starting Monday, about 300 state, local and federal agents are expected to converge on marijuana fields, using hand tools to dig up the plants.

“We’ve never had a coordinated effort before,” D’Ulisse said. “It’s jumped up in priority. You’re going to see a lot more effort, but it’s questionable whether that will produce a lot more (eradication). Some of it’s the luck of the draw.”

DEA officials expect agents to encounter booby traps meant to discourage thieves from stealing the plants. D’Ulisse said agents walked in single file at the De Luz Road farm to avoid mines or other traps, but encountered only a pair of dogs.

“One of them was pretty nasty,” he said. “But they were pretty easy to control.”

The DEA reported sighting 15,000 acres of marijuana plots in the Continental United States in 1983. D’Ulisse said there are about 1,200 acres in California, and that these account for one-third to one-half of all domestic marijuana production because the long California growing season allows for two crops each summer.