10 Arrested After Discovery of Pot Farm
Sheriff’s deputies and U.S. Forest Service rangers arrested 10 people Sunday in connection with a major marijuana farm in the Ventura County back country north of Ojai.
The illegal plot near Wheeler Gorge Campground included about 5,000 plants, up to 14 feet tall, said Ventura County Sheriff’s Capt. Bruce Hansen. Street value of the drug could be as high as $20 million.
A hunter stumbled upon the field while walking along a trail about two weeks ago. He was confronted by an armed suspect who warned, “You don’t want to go any further,” Hansen said.
The Sheriff’s Department has seen an increase in the number of illegal pot farms in recent years, Hansen said, and the Wheeler Gorge incident “makes it obvious that armed, potentially violent suspects are guarding these cultivations.”
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