The Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office Marijuana Team is continuing their aggressive raids of pot gardens on private property. Last week they matched their department record set the previous week by serving 36 search warrants. Most were done in the subdivisions Mount Shasta Vista, Mount Shasta Forest and Klamath River Country Estates. Deputies have served 175 search warrants on pot gardens so far this year. They say that at some of the grow sites they’ve encountered downed trees, garbage, raw sewage, illegal fertilizers and pesticides and illegal water diversions. Last week’s operations the raids netted a total of 2,558 plants. The totals for the year so far are more than 27,000 plants and over 12,500 pounds of bud. Deputies are now being assisted by state and federal agencies, including the FBI and the DEA.
A different task force led by Forest Service agents has so far this year removed more than 106,000 plants, mostly from the Klamath National Forest. They’ve also seized more than 5600 pounds of processed bud and made 10 arrests. The Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors has extended their declaration of a State of Emergency due to this year’s volume of marijuana gardens.