Agents attack crop as harvest nears

Above a gold-tinged cornfield Monday, Department of Justice agent Ed Whitfield dangled like a spider from a cable attached to a silvery helicopter.

Lowering Whitfield into the field, the chopper hovered momentarily while he hacked at thick stalks of marijuana planted strategically under cover of the corn. Whitfield then signaled the helicopter, which lifted him above the field as he clutched sheaves of the thick-stemmed plants. Approaching the command post, he tossed his harvest toward the back of a flatbed truck as law enforcement officials gathered the bounty and counted it.

Whitfield works with the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, which assisted the San Joaquin County Sheriffs' Office with its effort to destroy 342 marijuana plants Monday, six weeks before the ideal time for the crop to be harvested.

CAMP is a multiagency effort and includes members of the California National Guard, the state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement and the Department of Justice. For more than 19 years, CAMP has completed search-and-destroy missions on marijuana plantations throughout the state.

Sheriff's officials worked in Tracy, Escalon and on Rindge Tract near Paradise Point on Monday to eliminate the illegal crop. CAMP members worked only the Rindge Tract Operation, where 250 plants were found and cut. In Escalon, sheriff's officials harvested 40 plants hidden among reeds and trees along the Stanislaus River west of Jacob Meyers Park. But they struck out at a previously discovered location near Copperopolis.

"They had pulled them already, so (we) got skunked," said Nelida Stone, spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Office.

But since the plants have not yet matured, growers won't get much for their efforts, Stone said.

In agriculture, timing is everything. The Sheriff's Office called for CAMP's help this week because it's about six weeks before the plants would have reached their optimum potency.

"We do this every year," Stone said. "If we do it a little later, then (the growers) harvest themselves."

Randy Rimmey, regional operations commander for CAMP, took his turn Monday on the cable above Rindge Tract. While the tactic, called short-term airborne operations, is an effective way of finding and cutting down patches of marijuana, Rimmey said, deep irrigation ditches make the work dangerous and muddy.

"You have to be an adrenaline junkie for this job," Rimmey said. "It's a beast."

It's easy for a trained observer to see the plants growing between rows of golden corn. The stalks of marijuana are a vibrant green, while the corn is turning this late in the season. The contrast is clear.

"It really stands out," he said. "The big ones we cut down were about 3 feet above the corn."

Since 1983, CAMP teams have worked to locate, seize and eradicate large outdoor marijuana operations. In 2001 the teams seized 317,445 plants statewide, according to Sonya Barna, operations commander for CAMP.

This year, CAMP teams have seized 148,000 plants statewide. On Monday, two other CAMP teams worked in Mendicino and San Benito counties.

"We're seeing an increasing amount of Mexican national cartels that have taken over the marijuana industry," Barna said. "We're seeing the large commercial growers. ... (We're) about 90 percent sure that's who is growing it in the cornfields."

In most cases, Barna said, farm laborers poach farmers' irrigation, pesticide programs and fertilizers to bring their pot crops to harvest.

Since CAMP began dropping its team members into fields, its yield of seized marijuana has increased fivefold.

"Instead of taking five hours to get into the grow, it literally takes five minutes," Barna said. "One team can be implemented into five different grows."

She said the San Joaquin County harvest was a small to medium-sized bounty compared with last week's in another county, which topped 10,000 plants.

Still, Barna said San Joaquin is one of the more-active counties for illegal growers in the state. So CAMP members are expected back today to continue their search-and-destroy effort.

"Last year we eradicated over 7,000 plants (there), and that's pretty significant," said Barna.

* To reach reporter Linda Hughes-Kirchubel, phone 546-8297 or
e-mail lkirch@recordnet.com