Agents Destroy 90 Tons of Pot in Campaign

Nearly 90 tons of marijuana already has been uprooted by helicopter-borne law enforcement teams making raids on illicit gardens in California’s third annual Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, the state Department of Justice said Friday.

Justice Department spokeswoman Kati Corsaut said that since mid-July the seven teams of federal, state and local agents had ripped up 48,440 marijuana plants in 482 gardens at 171 separate sites--mostly in the so-called “Emerald Triangle” encompassing Mendocino, Humboldt and Trinity counties.

Based on official estimates that each mature plant would be worth $2,000, the value of the confiscated weed was put at more than $96 million.

On Thursday, U.S. Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III pronounced a brief national marijuana eradication program a success, reporting that 342,635 plants had been destroyed and 175 people arrested.

Program Expanded

Thirty-four of those arrests have been in California, where CAMP, as the state’s drive is known, is scheduled to last until mid-October. This year the program has received $2.6 million in state and federal funding.

The program began earlier this year than last, expanded from a $1.6-million effort in 1983 and a $2.1-million campaign last year. The opening CAMP drive two years ago reportedly netted 64,579 plants worth $130 million and 78 arrests in 14 counties. Last year’s campaign, according to Corsaut, resulted in the destruction of 152,368 plants worth $320 million and the arrest of 123 suspects.

As in the past, the raids have not been taken peacefully by the planters. On Wednesday, a sheriff’s helicopter was struck by 12 bullets while parked on a remote landing strip in Humboldt County. Two Molotov cocktails were thrown at it, but missed.

“Somebody tried to discourage us,” Corsaut said. “We went right back in and conducted the raids.”

Earlier, another helicopter was shot at on the ground but was not hit.

Joint Effort

Each team is made up of a dozen agents, including officers and agents from such federal agencies as the Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Forest Service (because many of the illegal pot farms are found on public land), from state law enforcement offices and from sheriffs’ departments of various counties.

There are also police officers from throughout the state, said Corsaut, who volunteer to take part in the raids.