Task Force Nets Bumper Crop of Pot Amid Avocado Groves

A narcotics task force seized about 30,000 marijuana plants hidden amid avocado groves nestled near the Cleveland National Forest in Riverside County during a weeklong operation, authorities said.

Vianey Medrano, 31, was arrested Friday on suspicion of cultivating marijuana, said Riverside County Sheriff’s Sgt. Shelley Kennedy-Smith. Medrano allegedly grew more than 4,600 plants. Medrano’s connection to other marijuana locations raided, if any, is unclear, Deputy John Kaiser said. The seizures began May 1. Seventeen locations were raided during the week by a task force, which included officers from San Diego, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Customs Service, the U.S. Forest Service and the state National Guard.

The pot, which the task force said was worth more than $170 million, was being grown in heavily vegetated parts of Murrieta, the La Cresta area and Temecula, Kennedy-Smith said.

“It’s a very easy area to hide, and to hide things,” she said. “All you see are groves, and rows and rows of oranges and avocados.” Authorities were tipped off to the pot by avocado growers concerned that water was being diverted.