2 Fallbrook Men Indicted on Pot-Growing Charges

Two Fallbrook men were indicted by a federal grand jury in San Diego on Wednesday on charges of growing marijuana on a remote North County ranch.

Al Gregory Ahlquist, 37, and Gary Emett Faught, 31, were charged with three counts of conspiracy to manufacture with intent to sell marijuana and with manufacturing the drug with intent to sell. The pair faces 15 years in federal prison and $750,000 in fines if convicted.

After a two-month investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration agents seized 1,206 marijuana plants at the 85-acre Matthews Ranch during an Aug. 3 raid. U.S. Atty. Peter K. Nunez put the value of the plants at $300,000, but DEA Special Agent Ron D’Ulisse said the plants would have commanded a price of about $2.4 million if allowed to grow to full size. D’Ulisse said each mature plant can produce more than a pound of marijuana.

Federal officials said the raid represented the biggest marijuana plant seizure in San Diego County in recent memory. Previous raids produced 400 to 500 plants at individual plots. In 1984, federal, state and local agents seized more than 12,000 plants in San Diego County.

The federal indictment against the men alleges that they attempted to conceal the plants, which were growing in a ravine. Seventeen agents pulled up the two- to three-foot plants by hand. D’Ulisse said that about 80 plants were seized at the same ranch last year, but no arrests were made at that time. The ranch is at the end of De Luz Road, about a mile south of the Riverside County line.

Ahlquist, identified as the ranch foreman, and Faught had fashioned a sophisticated irrigation system, including a camouflaged hose, to grow the plants, D’Ulisse said. Agents also found an excavation where the men apparently planned to build a hothouse to cultivate marijuana seeds.

The ranch’s owner was not involved in the scheme, D’Ulisse said.