Deputies Press Hunt for More Pot Bunkers

Sheriff’s deputies, following up the discovery under the Antelope Valley desert of the most sophisticated marijuana farms ever found in Los Angeles County, pressed the hunt Monday for more of the subterranean plantations.

As two men arrested at one of the farms were charged with possession and cultivation of the drug, deputies looking for evidence of additional growing sites served search warrants at “several locations” in the Antelope Valley, said Stephen L. Cooley, head of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office.

No arrests were made, but Cooley said new arrests and raids on additional plantations were possible.

Authorities also conducted searches Sunday in Barstow and Palm Desert but found no farms, said Sheriff’s Capt. Larry Waldie, commander of the narcotics bureau.

Meanwhile, Lancaster Municipal Judge Ian R. Grant set bail at $1 million for Ronald Podratz and Calvin James, two men described as caretakers at an estate east of Lancaster where deputies Thursday confiscated 6,000 marijuana plants and high-technology growing equipment from an underground bunker.

The arraignment of Podratz and James was continued until Nov. 27 at the request of their court-appointed attorneys. The two face up to three years in prison if convicted of charges of possession and cultivation of marijuana for sale.

Prosecutors will decide today whether to charge a third suspect being held in Lancaster, Richard Yerger Jr., Cooley said. Documents indicate that Yerger, who surrendered in Long Beach Saturday, owns the property containing the marijuana farm near Lancaster, but prosecutors said they were looking for further evidence.

Yerger’s father, Richard E. Yerger, was still being sought for questioning, deputies said. Documents show the elder Yerger, owner of a Lancaster contracting firm, owns a house in the desert community of Llano where a raid Friday turned up a second marijuana plantation that was smaller but more sophisticated than the first, authorities said. The farms are about 20 miles apart.

The Yergers and Frank Gegax, a Lancaster contractor in federal custody in Los Angeles, are believed to have played “high-level” roles in the operation, a federal Drug Enforcement Administration agent said Monday. Gegax, owner of KMG Construction Inc. in Lancaster, surrendered to deputies Thursday and was charged in Phoenix Friday with conspiracy to possess marijuana for sale.

The DEA agent, who declined to be identified, said investigators believe the Yergers and Gegax financed the plantations, which authorities say cost about $1 million to construct and produced a harvest worth between $75 million and $150 million on the street.

Cooley would not comment on that description. He said investigators are still trying to determine the scope of the case, which also involves two additional underground marijuana farms in Arizona.

Federal agents in Phoenix are holding six suspects after an Oct. 30 raid on those sites, which DEA agent John Albano described Monday as the DEA’s largest seizure ever at an underground operation.

Prosecutors in Lancaster said both Gegax and the Yergers had the construction expertise needed to build the elaborate plantations. The Lancaster plantation appeared to have been in operation for at least two years, authorities said.

Authorities also noted that Richard Yerger Inc. was the general contractor and KMG was a subcontractor on a Lancaster senior citizen housing complex under construction that was destroyed in a $4-million fire in November, 1987. Arson investigators suspected that the fire was deliberately set but no arrests were made.

Authorities said the arson investigation may be reopened as a result of the arrests of Gegax and the younger Yerger, who reportedly worked in his father’s firm.

In an interview Monday, Richard Yerger Jr.’s brother-in-law--Alfred Brand of Sebastopol in Northern California--said the construction firm has been in difficult financial straits for the past three years as a result of the 1987 fire and expensive litigation that ensued.

“They were essentially shut down because of the arson,” Brand said. Brand said he found it hard to believe that the Yergers could take part in the expensive marijuana production operation because of their financial problems.

Times staff writer John Chandler contributed to this story.