Marijuana Farm Raided; 1 Arrested

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies, acting on an anonymous tip, raided a marijuana farm Sunday near the junction of Topanga Canyon Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway and arrested a 27-year-old man on charges of cultivating the drug.

Deputies from the Malibu Sheriff’s Station yanked up about 1,600 marijuana plants, ranging in size from seedlings in wooden buckets to man-high plants ready for harvest. The plants were scattered over several wooded acres.

Deputies estimated that the crop was worth $1.5 million on the street.

The suspect taken into custody was Christopher Conde, who the deputies said lived in a nearby house. Deputies said they found packaging materials, scales and about five pounds of dried marijuana in paper bags in the house.

Authorities are investigating whether at least one more suspect was involved in the operation. “It was commercial, way beyond what a normal family would use,” Lt. Mike Moore said.

A similar farm was discovered last summer at the junction of Saddle Peak and Stunt roads in an unincorporated area of the Santa Monica Mountains. Since then, deputies have conducted aerial searches of the steep hills and canyons around Topanga Canyon and Malibu but have found nothing. Thick brush had apparently hidden the patch discovered Sunday from aerial detection.

The farm raided Sunday is in a rustic enclave of shacks and bungalows locally known as the Rodeo Grounds. Noted as a hippie haven in the ‘60s and ‘70s, it clings to vestiges of its tie-dye character, and its 50 or so inhabitants include an assortment of artists, surfers and other individualists.

Detective John Cater said the footpaths leading to the marijuana patch were well-traveled and that it would have been hard for hikers to miss the marijuana. “It’s a tight little community. Nobody took it upon themselves to call the sheriff’s (office), which speaks for itself,” Cater said.

Several residents interviewed by a reporter insisted, however, that they were unaware of the marijuana in their midst.

Conde was released on Tuesday on $50,000 bail. Deputies are storing the marijuana in a locker at the Malibu station for use as evidence in a trial.